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THE  HISTORY  OF  ROME 


THE 

HISTORY  OF  ROME 


BY 

THEODOR  MOMMSEN 


TRANSLATED 

WITH  TEE  AUTHORS  SANCTION  AND  ADDITIONS 

BY 

WILLIAM  P.  DICKSON,  D.D,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  DIVINITY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GLASGOW 


THE  PROVINCES,  FROM  CAESAR  TO  DIOCLETIAN 
PART  n 


WITH  TWO  MAPS  BY  PROFESSOR  KIEPERT 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1899 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013, 


http://archive.org/details/provincesofroman2097momm_0 


THE  PROVINCES 

OF  THE 

ROMAlSr  EMPIRE 

FEOM  CAESAK  TO  DIOCLETIAN 


BY 

THEODOR  MOMMSEN 

TRANSLATED 

WITH  THE  AUTHORS  SANCTION  AND  ADDITIONS 

BY 

WILLIAM   P.  DICKSON,    D.D.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  DIVINITY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  GLASGOW 


OOIsrTENTS. 


BOOK  EIGHTH. 

THE  PROVINCES  AND  PEOPLE  FROM  CAESAR 
TO  DIOCLETIAN 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGE 

The  Euphrates  Frontier  and  the  Parthians,      .      .  1 
CHAPTER  X. 

Syria  and  the  Land  of  the  Nabataeans,      .      .       .  127 
CHAPTER  XL 

Judaea  and  the  Jews,        .      .      .      .      ,      .      .  174 
CHAPTER  XII. 

Egypt,  252 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  African  Provinces,     .      .      ...      .  330 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  EUPHRATES  FRONTIER  AND  THE  PARTHIANS. 

The  only  great  state  with  which  the  Koman  empire  bor- 
dered was  the  empire  of  Iran,^  based  upon 
iranf"^^^'^^  that  nationaHtj  which  was  best  known  in 
antiquity,  as  it  is  in  the  present  day,  under 
the  name  of  the  Persians,  consoHdated  politically  by  the 
old  Persian  royal  family  of  the  Achaemenids  and  its  first 
great-king  Cyrus,  united  religiously  by  the  faith  of  Ahura 
Mazda  and  of  Mithra.  No  one  of  the  ancient  peoples  of 
culture  solved  the  problem  of  national  union  equally  early 
and  with  equal  completeness.  The  Iranian  tribes  reached 
on  the  south  as  far  as  the  Indian  Ocean,  on  the  north  as 
far  as  the  Caspian  Sea  ;  on  the  north-east  the  steppes  of 
inland  Asia  formed  the  constant  battle-ground  between 
the  settled  Persians  and  the  nomadic  tribes  of  Turan.  On 
the  east  mighty  mountains  formed  a  boundary  separat- 
ing them  from  the  Indians.  In  western  Asia  three  great 
nations  early  encountered  one  another,  each  pushing  for- 

^  The  conception  that  the  Roman  and  the  Parthian  empires  were 
two  great  states  standing  side  by  side,  and  indeed  the  only  ones 
in  existence,  dominated  the  whole  Roman  East,  particularly  the 
frontier-provinces.  It  meets  us  palpably  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John, 
in  which  there  is  a  juxtaposition  as  well  of  the  rider  on  the  white 
horse  with  the  bow  and  of  the  rider  on  the  red  horse  with  the 
6word  (vi.  2,  3)  as  of  the  Megistanes  and  the  Chiliarchs  (vi.  15, 
comp.  xviii.  23,  xix.  18).  The  closing  catastrophe,  too,  is  conceived 
as  a  subduing  of  the  Romans  by  the  Parthians  bringing  back  the 
emperor  Nero  (ix.  14,  xvi.  12)  and  Armageddon,  whatever  may  be 
meant  by  it,  as  the  rendezvous  of  the  Orientals  for  the  collective 
attack  on  the  West.  Certainly  the  author,  writing  in  the  Roman 
empire,  hints  these  far  from  patriotic  hopes  more  than  he  expresses 
them. 


2 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  vnl. 


ward  on  its  own  account :  the  Hellenes,  who  from  Europe 
grasped  at  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  the  Aramaean  peoples, 
who  from  Arabia  and  Syria  advanced  in  a  northern  and 
north-eastern  direction  and  substantially  filled  the  valley 
of  the  Euphrates,  and  lastly,  the  stocks  of  Iran  not  merely 
inhabiting  the  country  as  far  as  the  Tigris,  but  even  pene- 
trating to  Armenia  and  Cappadocia,  while  primitive  in- 
habitants of  another  type  in  these  far-extending  regions 
succumbed  under  these  leading  powers  and  disappeared. 
In  the  epoch  of  the  Achaemenids,  the  culminating  point 
of  the  glory  of  Iran,  the  Iranian  rule  went  far  beyond  this 
wide  domain  proper  to  the  stock  on  all  sides,  but  especial- 
ly towards  the  west.  Apart  from  the  times,  when  Turan 
gained  the  upper  hand  over  Iran  and  the  Seljuks  and 
Mongols  ruled  over  the  Persians,  foreign  rule,  strictly  so 
called,  has  only  been  established  over  the  flower  of  the 
Iranian  stocks  twice,  by  Alexander  the  Great  and  his 
immediate  successors  and  by  the  Arabian  Abbasids,  and 
on  both  occasions  only  for  a  comparatively  short  time  ; 
the  eastern  regions — in  the  former  case  the  Parthians,  in 
the  latter  the  inhabitants  of  the  ancient  Bactria — not 
merely  threw  off  again  the  yoke  of  the  foreigner,  but  dis- 
lodged him  also  from  the  cognate  west. 

When  the  Komans  in  the  last  age  of  the  republic  came 

into  immediate  contact  with  Iran  as  a  conse- 
P^rtM^ns^*      quence  of  the  occupation  of  Syria,  they  found 

in  existence  the  Persian  empire  regenerated 
by  the  Parthians.  We  have  formerly  had  to  make  men- 
tion of  this  state  on  several  occasions  ;  this  is  the  place 
to  gather  together  the  little  that  can  be  ascertained  re- 
garding the  peculiar  character  of  the  empire,  which  so 
often  exercised  a  decisive  influence  on  the  destinies  of  the 
neighbouring  state.  Certainly  to  most  questions,  which 
the  historical  inquirer  has  here  to  put,  tradition  has  no 
answer.  The  Occidentals  give  but  occasional  notices, 
which  may  in  their  isolation  easily  mislead  us,  concerning 
the  internal  condition  of  their  Parthian  neighbours  and 
foes ;  and,  if  the  Orientals  in  general  have  hardly  under- 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


3 


stood  how  to  fix  and  to  preserve  historical  tradition,  this 
holds  doubly  true  of  the  period  of  the  Arsacids,  seeing 
that  it  was  by  the  later  Iranians  regarded,  together  with 
the  preceding  foreign  rule  of  the  Seleucids,  as  an  unwar- 
ranted usurpation  between  the  periods  of  the  old  and  the 
new  Persian  rule — the  Achaemenids  and  the  Sassanids  ; 
this  period  of  five  hundred  years  is,  so  to  speak,  eliminated 
by  way  of  correction  *  from  the  history  of  Iran,  and  is  as 
if  non-existent. 

The  standpoint,  thus  occupied  by  the  court-historio- 
graphers of  the  Sassanid  dynasty,  is  more  the 
scytMan.^^^"^  legitimist-dyuastic  one  of  the  Persian  nobility 
than  that  of  Iranian  nationality.  No  doubt 
the  authors  of  the  first  imperial  epoch  describe  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Parthians,  whose  home  corresponds  nearly  to 
the  modern  Chorasan,  as  intermediate  between  the  Median 
and  the  Scythian,  that  is,  as  an  impure  Iranian  dialect ; 
accordingly  they  were  regarded  as  immigrants  from  the 
land  of  the  Scythians,  and  in  this  sense  their  name  is  in- 
terpreted as  "fugitive  people,"  while  the  founder  of  the 
dynasty,  Arsaces,  is  declared  by  some  indeed  to  have  been 
a  Bactrian,  but  by  others  a  Scythian  from  the  Maeotis. 
The  fact  that  their  princes  did  not  take  up  their  resi- 
dence in  Seleucia  on  the  Tigris,  but  pitched  their  winter 
quarters  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  at  Ctesiphon,  is 
traced  to  their  wish  not  to  quarter  Scythian  troops  in  the 
rich  mercantile  city.  Much  in  the  manners  and  arrange- 
ments of  the  Parthians  is  alien  from  Iranian  habits,  and 
reminds  us  of  the  customs  of  nomadic  life  ;  they  transact 
business  and  eat  on  horseback,  and  the  free  man  never  goes 
on  foot.  It  cannot  w^ell  be  doubted  that  the  Parthians, 
whose  name  alone  of  all  the  tribes  of  this  region  is  not 
named  in  the  sacred  books  of  the  Persians,  stand  aloof 
from  Iran  proper,  in  which  the  Achaemenids  and  the  Ma- 

^  This  holds  true  even  in  some  measure  for  the  chronology.  The 
official  historiography  of  the  Sassanids  reduces  the  space  between 
the  last  Darius  and  the  first  Sassanid  from  558  to  266  years  (Noldeke, 
Tabari,  p.  1). 


4 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIIL 


gians  are  at  home.  The  antagonism  of  this  Iran  to  the 
ruhng  fainilv  springing  from  an  unciviHsed  and  half  for- 
eign district  and  to  its  immediate  followers — this  antago- 
nism, which  the  Koman  authors  not  unwillingly  took  over 
from  their  Persian  neighbours — certainly  subsisted  and 
fermented  throughout  the  whole  rule  of  the  Arsacids,  till 
it  at  length  brought  about  their  fall.  But  the  rule  of  the 
Arsacids  may  not  on  that  account  be  conceived  as  a  foreign 
rule.  No  privileges  were  conceded  to  the  Parthian  stock 
and  to  the  Parthian  province.  It  is  true  that  the  Parthian 
town  Hecatompylos  is  named  as  residence  of  the  Arsacids  ; 
but  they  chiefly  sojourned  in  summer  at  Ecbatana  (Ham- 
adan),  or  else  at  Ehagae  like  the  Achaemenids,  in  winter, 
as  already  stated,  in  the  camp-town  of  Ctesiphon,  or  else 
in  Babylon  on  the  extreme  western  border  of  the  empire. 
The  hereditary  burial-place  continued  in  the  Parthian 
town  Nisaea  ;  but  subsequently  Arbela  in  Assyria  served 
for  that  purpose  more  frequently.  The  poor  and  remote 
■r  native  province  of  the  Parthians  was  in  no  way  suited  for 
the  luxurious  court-life,  and  the  important  relations  to 
the  West,  especially  of  the  later  Arsacids.  The  chief 
country  continued  even  now  to  be  Media,  just  as  under 
the  Achaemenids.  However  the  Arsacids  might  be  of 
Scythian  descent,  not  so  much  depended  on  what  they 
were  as  on  what  they  desired  to  be ;  and  they  regarded 
and  professed  themselves  throughout  as  the  successors  of 
Cyrus  and  of  Darius.  As  the  seven  Persian  family-princes 
had  set  aside  the  false  Achaemenid,  and  had  restored  the 
legitimate  rule  by  the  elevation  of  Darius,  so  needs  must 
other  seven  have  overthrown  the  Macedonian  foreign 
yoke  and  placed  king  Arsaces  on  the  throne.  "With  this 
patriotic  fiction  must  further  be  connected  the  circum- 
stance that  a  Bactrian  nativity  instead  of  a  Scythian  was 
assigned  to  the  first  Arsaces.  The  dress  and  the  etiquette 
at  the  court  of  the  Arsacids  were  those  of  the  Persian 
court ;  after  king  Mithradates  I.  had  extended  his  rule  to 
the  Indus  and  Tigris,  the  dynasty  exchanged  the  simple 
title  of  king  for  that  of  king  of  kings  which  the  Achae- 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


5 


meuids  had  borne,  and  the  pointed  Scythian  cap  for  the 
high  tiara  adorned  with  pearls  ;  on  the  coins  the  king 
carries  the  bow  like  Darius.  The  aristocracy,  too,  that 
came  into  the  land  with  the  Arsacids  and  doubtless  be- 
came in  many  ways  mixed  with  the  old  indigenous  one, 
adopted  Persian  manners  and  dress,  mostly  also  Persian 
names  ;  of  the  Parthian  army  which  fought  with  Crassus 
it  is  said  that  the  soldiers  still  wore  their  hair  rough  after 
the  Scythian  fashion,  but  the  general  appeared  after  the 
Median  manner  with  the  hair  parted  in  the  middle  and 
with  painted  face. 

The  political  organisation,  as  it  was  established  by  the 
fii'st  Mithradates,  was  accordingly  in  substance 
■  that  of  the  Achaemenids.  The  family  of  the 
founder  of  the  dynasty  is  invested  with  all  the  lustre 
and  with  all  the  consecration  of  ancestral  and  divinely-or- 
dained rule  ;  his  name  is  transferred  cle  jure  to  each  of 
his  successors  and  divine  honour  is  assigned  to  him  ;  his 
successors  are  therefore  called  sons  of  God,'  and  be- 
sides brothers  of  the  sun-god  and  the  moon-goddess,  like 
the  Shah  of  Persia  still  at  the  present  day ;  to  shed  the  blood 
of  a  member  of  the  royal  family  even  by  mere  accident  is 
a  sacrilege — all  of  them  regulations,  which  with  few  abate- 
ments recur  among  the  Koman  Caesars,  and  are  perhaps 
borrowed  in  part  from  those  of  the  older  great-monarchy. 

Although  the  royal  dignity  was  thus  firmly  attached 
to  the  family,  there  yet  subsisted  a  certain 

Megistanes. 

choice  as  to  the  king.  As  the  new  ruler  had 
to  belong  as  well  to  the  college  of  the  "kinsmen  of  the 
royal  house  "  as  to  the  council  of  priests,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  ascend  the  throne,  an  act  must  have  taken  place, 

^  The  viceroys  of  Persis  are  called  in  their  title  constantly  "Zag 
Aloliin  "  (at  least  tlie  Aramaean  signs  correspond  to  these  words, 
which  were  presumably  in  pronunciation  expressed  in  the  Persian 
way),  son  of  God  (Mordtmann,  Zeitsclirift  fur  Numismatik,  iv.  155 
f.),  and  to  this  corresponds  the  title  deoTrdrcup  on  the  Greek  coins 
of  the  great-kings.  The  designation  "  God"  is  also  found,  as  with 
the  Seleucids  and  the  Sassanids. — V»liy  a  double  diadem  is  attrib- 
uted to  the  Arsacids  (Herodian,  vi.  2,  1)  is  not  cleared  up. 


6 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


whereby,  it  may  be  presumed,  these  same  colleges  them- 
selves acknowledged  the  new  ruler.'  By  the  "kinsmen" 
are  doubtless  to  be  understood  not  merely  the  Arsacids 
themselves,  but  the  "seven  houses  "of  the  Achaemenid 
organization,  princely  families,  to  which  according  to  that 
arrangement  equality  of  rank  and  free  access  to  the  great- 
king  belonged,  and  which  must  have  had  similar  privi- 
leges under  the  Arsacids.^  These  families  were  at  the 
same  time  holders  of  hereditary  crown  offices,^  e.g.  the 
Suren — the  name  is  like  the  name  Arsaces,  a  designation 
at  once  of  person  and  of  office — the  second  family  after 
the  royal  house,  as  crown-masters,  placed  on  each  occa- 
sion the  tiara  on  the  head  of  the  new  Arsaces.  But  as 
the  Arsacids  themselves  belonged  to  the  Parthian  prov- 
ince, so  the  Suren  were  at  home  in  Sacastane  (Seistan) 
and  perhaps  Sacae,  thus  Scythians ;  the  Caren  likewise 
descended  from  western  Media,  while  the  highest  aris- 
tocracy under  the  Achaemenids  was  purely  Persian. 

^  Twj/  YiapQva'iwv  (TvveSpiSv  (p-qcriv  (YIoct^l^wvios)  eJvai,  says  Strabo,  xi. 
9,  3,  p.  515,  5itt6v  rh  fxkv  (TvyyevSov,  rh  Se  (r6cpcav  Kal  fidycav,  e£  ui^  aucpafip 
Tovs  fiaai\eis  Kadlaraffdai  (KaOiaTrja-iv  in  MSS.)  ;  Justinus,  xvii.  3,  1, 
Mithridates  rex  Partliorum  .  .  .  iwajpter  crudelitatem  a  senatu 
Parthico  regno  pelUtur. 

In  Egypt,  whose  court  ceremonial,  as  doubtless  that  of  all  the 
states  of  the  Diadochi,  is  based  on  that  ordained  by  Alexander,  and 
in  so  far  upon  that  of  the  Persian  empire,  the  like  title  seems 
to  have  been  conferred  also  personally  (Franz,  C.  I.  Gr.  iii.  270). 
That  the  same  occurred  with  the  Arsacids,  is  possible.  Among  the 
Greek-speaking  subjects  of  the  Arsacid  state  the  appellation  [x^yi- 
oTav^s  seems  in  the  original  stricter  use  to  denote  the  members  of  the 
seven  houses ;  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  megistanes  and  satrapae 
are  associated  (Seneca,  Bp.  21  ;  Josephus,  ArcJi  (xi.  3,  2  ;  xx.  2,  3). 
The  circumstance  that  in  court  mourning  the  Persian  king  does  not 
invite  the  megistanes  to  table  (Suetonius,  Gai.  5)  suggests  the  con- 
jecture that  they  had  the  privilege  of  taking  meals  with  him.  The 
title  rwv  irpuTwy  (plxuv  is  also  found  among  the  Arsacids  just  as  at 
the  Egyptian  and  Pontic  courts  {Bull,  de  corr.  Hell.  vii.  p.  349). 

2  A  royal  cup-bearer,  who  is  at  the  same  time  general,  is  men- 
tioned in  Josephus,  Arcli.  xiv.  13,  7  =■  Bell.  Jud.  i.  13,  1.  Similar 
court  offices  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  states  of  the  Dia- 
dochi. 


Chap.  IX]         The  Eujyhrates  Frontier. 


1 


The  administration  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  under-kings 
or  satraps  ;  according  to  the  Koman  biogra- 
satraps.  phers  of  Vespasian's  time  the  state  of  the 
Parthians  consisted  of  eighteen  "kingdoms."  Some  of 
these  satrapies  were  appanages  of  a  second  son  of  the 
ruHng  house  ;  in  particular  the  two  north-western  prov- 
inces, the  Atropatenian  Media  (Aderbijan)  and  Armenia, 
so  far  as  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Parthians,  appear  to 
have  been  entrusted  for  administration  to  the  prince 
standing  next  to  the  ruler  for  the  time.'  We  may  add 
that  prominent  among  the  satraps  were  the  king  of  the 
province  of  Elymais  or  of  Susa,  to  whom  was  conceded  a 
specially  powerful  and  exceptional  position,  and  next  to 
him  the  king  of  Persis,  the  ancestral  land  of  the  Achae- 
menids.  The  form  of  administration,  if  not  exclusive,  yet 
preponderant  and  conditioning  the  title,  was  in  the  Par- 
thian empu-e — otherwise  than  in  the  case  of  the  Caesars — 
that  of  vassal-kingdom,  so  that  the  satraps  entered  by 
hereditary  right,  but  were  subject  to  confirmation  by  the 
great-king.^    To  all  appearances  this  continued  down- 

^  Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  2,  31.  If,  according  to  tlie  preface  of  Agatli- 
angelos  (p.  109,  Langlois),  at  tlie  time  of  tlie  Arsacids  tlie  oldest 
and  ablest  prince  bore  rule  over  the  country,  and  the  three  stand- 
ing next  to  him  were  kings  of  the  Armenians,  of  the  Indians,  and 
of  the  Massagetae,  there  is  here  perhaps  at  bottom  the  same  ar- 
rangement. That  the  Partho-Indian  empire,  if  it  was  combined 
with  the  main  land,  was  likewise  regarded  as  an  appanage  for  the 
second  son,  is  very  probable. 

^  These  are  doubtless  meant  by  Justinus  (xli.  2,  2),  proximus 
maiestati  regum  praepodtorum  orclo  est ;  ex  hoc  duces  in  hello,  ex  hoc 
in  pace  rectores  habent.  The  native  name  is  preserved  by  the  gloss 
in  Hesychius,  jSiVral  b  fiaaiXevs  irapa  Uepffais.  If  in  Ammianus, 
xxiii.  6,  14,  the  presidents  of  the  Persian  regiones  are  called  viiaxae 
(read  vistaxae),  id  est  magistri  equitum  et  reges  et  satrapae,  he  has 
awkwardly  referred  what  is  Persian  to  all  Inner  Asia  (comp. 
Hermes,  xvi.  613);  we  may  add  that  the  designation  "leaders  of 
horsemen  "  for  these  viceroys  may  relate  to  the  fact  that  they,  like 
the  Roman  governors,  united  in  themselves  the  highest  civil  and 
the  supreme  military  power,  and  the  army  of  the  Parthians  con- 
sisted preponderantly  of  cavalry. 


8 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIIl. 


wards,  so  that  smaller  dynasts  and  family  chiefs  stood  in 
the  same  relation  to  the  under-kings  as  the  latter  occupied 
to  the  great-king/  Thus  the  office  of  great-king  among  the 
Parthians  was  limited  to  the  utmost  in  favour  of  the  high 
aristocracy  by  the  accompanying  subdivision  of  the  he- 
reditary administration  of  the  land.  With  this  it  is  quite 
in  keeping,  that  the  mass  of  the  population  consisted  of 
persons  half  or  wholly  non-free/  and  emancipation  was 
not  allowable.  In  the  army  which  fought  against  An- 
tonius  there  are  said  to  have  been  only  400  free  among 
50,000.  The  chief  among  the  vassals  of  Orodes,  who  as 
his  general  defeated  Crassus,  marched  to  the  field  with  a 
harem  of  200  wives  and  a  baggage  train  of  1000  sumpter- 
camels  ;  he  himself  furnished  to  the  army  10,000  horse- 
men from  his  clients  and  slaves.  The  Parthians  never 
had  a  standing  army,  but  at  all  times  the  waging  of  war 
here  was  left  to  depend  on  the  general  levy  of  the  vassal 
princes  and  of  the  vassals  subordinate  to  these,  as  well  as 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  non-free  over  whom  these  bore 
sway. 

Certainly  the  urban  element  was  not  quite  wanting  in 
mu  ^    ,  .      the  political  ore^anisation  of  the  Parthian  em- 

The  Greek  towns  ^  ° 

of  the  Parthian  pire.  It  is  truc  that  the  larger  townships, 
which  arose  out  of  the  distinctive  development 
of  the  East,  were  not  urban  commonwealths,  as  indeed 
even  the  Parthian  royal  residence,  Ctesiphon,  is  named  in 
contrast  to  the  neighbouring  Greek  foundation  of  Seleucia 
a  village;  they  had  no  presidents  of  their  own  and  no  com- 
mon council,  and  the  administration  lay  here,  as  in  the 
country  districts,  exclusively  with  the  royal  officials.  But 

^  This  we  learn  from  the  title  ffarpairyis  rwv  o-arpairccVf  attributed 
to  one  Gotarzes  in  the  inscription  of  Kermanschahan  in  Kurdistan 
{C.  1.  Or.  4674).  It  cannot  be  assigned  to  the  Arsacid  king  of  the 
same  name  as  such ;  but  perhaps  there  may  be  designated  by  it,  as 
Olshausen  {MonatsbericM  der  Berliner  AJcademie,  1878,  p.  179)  con- 
jectures, that  position  which  belonged  to  him  after  his  renouncing 
of  the  great-kingdom  (Tacitus,  Ann.  xi.  9). 

^  Still  later  a  troop  of  horse  in  the  Parthian  army  is  called  that 
♦*  of  the  free  :  "  Josephus,  ArcJi.  xiv.  13,  5  =  Bell.  Jud.  i.  13,  3. 


Chap.  IX] 


The  Etipkrates  Frontier. 


9 


a  portion — comparatively  small,  it  is  true — of  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Greek  rulers  had  come  under  Parthian  rule. 
In  the  provinces  of  Mesopotamia  and  Babylonia  by  nation- 
ality Aramaean  the  Greek  town-system  had  gained  a  firm 
footing  under  Alexander  and  his  successors.  Mesopotamia 
was  covered  with  Greek  commonwealths;  and  in  Babylonia, 
the  successor  of  the  ancient  Babylon,  the  precursor  of  Bag- 
dad, and  for  a  time  the  residence  of  the  Greek  kings  of 
Asia — Seleucia  on  the  Tigris — had  by  its  favourable  com- 
mercial position  and  its  manufactures  risen  to  be  the  first 
mercantile  city  beyond  the  Roman  bounds,  with  more,  it 
is  alleged,  than  half  a  million  of  inhabitants.  Its  free  Hel- 
lenic organisation,  on  which  beyond  doubt  its  prosperity 
above  all  depended,  was  not  touched  even  by  the  Parthian 
rulers  in  their  own  interest,  and  the  city  preserved  not 
merely  its  town  council  of  300  elected  members,  but  also 
the  Greek  language  and  Greek  habits  amidst  the  non- 
Greek  East.  It  is  true  that  the  Hellenes  in  these  towns 
formed  only  the  dominant  element ;  alongside  of  them 
lived  numerous  Syrians,  and,  as  a  third  constituent,  there 
were  associated  with  these  the  not  much  less  numerous 
Jews,  so  that  the  population  of  these  Greek  towns  of  the 
Parthian  empire,  just  like  that  of  Alexandria,  was  composed 
of  three  separate  nationalities  standing  side  by  side.  Be- 
tween these,  just  as  in  Alexandria,  conflicts  not  seldom  oc- 
curred, as  e.g.  at  the  time  of  the  reign  of  Gains  under  the 
eyes  of  the  Parthian  government  the  three  nations  came 
to  blows,  and  ultimately  the  Jews  were  driven  out  of  the 
larger  towns. 

In  so  far  the  Parthian  empire  was  the  genuine  counter- 
part to  the  Roman.  As  in  the  one  the  Oriental  viceroy- 
ship  is  an  exceptional  occurrence,  so  in  the  other  is  the 
Greek  city  ;  the  general  Oriental  aristrocratic  character  of 
the  Parthian  government  is  as  little  injuriously  affected  by 
the  Greek  mercantile  towns  on  the  west  coast  as  is  the 
civic  organisation  of  the  Roman  state  by  the  vassal  king- 
doms of  Cappadocia  and  Armenia.  While  in  the  state 
of  the  Caesars  the  Romano-Greek  urban  commonwealth 


10 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


spreads  more  and  more,  and  gradually  becomes  the  gen- 
eral form  of  administration,  the  foundation  of  towns — the 
true  mark  of  Helleno-Roman  civilisation,  which  embraces 
the  Greek  mercantile  cities  and  the  military  colonies  of 
Rome  as  well  as  the  grand  settlements  of  Alexander  and 
the  Alexandrids — suddenly  breaks  off  with  the  emergence 
of  the  Parthian  government  in  the  East,  and  even  the  ex- 
isting Greek  cities  of  the  Parthian  empire  wane  in  the 
further  course  of  development.  There,  as  here,  the  rule 
more  and  more  prevails  over  the  exceptions. 

The  religion  of  Iran  with  its  worship — approximating  to 
monotheism — of  the  "highest  of  the  gods,  who 
has  made  heaven  and  earth  and  men  and  for 
these  everything  good,"  with  its  absence  of  images  and  its 
spirituality,  with  its  stern  morality  and  truthfulness,  with 
its  influence  upon  practical  activity  and  energetic  conduct 
of  life,  laid  hold  of  the  minds  of  its  confessors  in  quite 
another  and  deeper  way  than  the  religions  of  the  West 
ever  could ;  and,  while  neither  Zeus  nor  Jupiter  maintained 
their  ground  in  presence  of  a  developed  civilisation,  the 
faith  among  the  Parsees  remained  ever  young  till  it  suc- 
cumbed to  another  gospel — that  of  the  confessors  of  Mo- 
hammed— or  at  any  rate  retreated  before  it  to  India.  It 
is  not  our  task  to  set  forth  how  the  old  Mazda-faith,  which 
the  Achaemenids  professed,  and  the  origin  of  which  falls 
in  prehistoric  time,  was  related  to  that  which  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Persians  having  their  origin  probably  under 
the  later  Achaemenids — the  Avesta — announce  as  the  doc- 
trine of  the  wise  Zarathustra ;  for  the  epoch,  when  the 
West  is  placed  in  contact  with  the  East,  only  the  later 
form  of  religion  comes  under  consideration.  That  the 
Avesta  took  shape,  not  in  the  east  of  Iran,  in  Bactria,  but 
probably  in  Media,  may  be  regarded  as  an  assured  result 
of  recent  investigation.  But  the  national  religion  and  the 
national  state  were  bound  up  with  one  another  in  Iran 
more  closely  than  even  among  the  Celts.  It  has  already 
been  noticed  that  the  legitimate  kingship  in  Iran  was  at 
the  same  time  a  religious  institution,  that  the  supreme 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


11 


ruler  of  the  land  was  conceived  as  specially  called  to  the 
government  by  the  supreme  deity  of  the  land,  and  even  in 
some  measure  divine.  On  the  coins  of  a  national  type 
there  appears  regularly  the  great  fire-altar,  and  hovering 
over  it  the  winged  god  Ahura  Mazda,  alongside  of  him  in 
lesser  size,  and  in  an  attitude  of  prayer,  the  king,  and  over- 
against  the  king  the  imperial  banner.  In  keeping  with 
this,  the  ascendency  of  the  nobility  in  the  Parthian  em- 
pire goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  privileged  position  of  the 
clergy.  The  priests  of  this  religion,  the  Magians,  appear 
already  in  the  documents  of  the  Achaemenids  and  in  the 
narratives  of  Herodotus,  and  have,  probably  with  right, 
always  been  regarded  by  the  Occidentals  as  a  national  Per- 
sian institution.  The  priesthood  was  hereditary,  and  at 
least  in  Media,  presumably  also  in  other  provinces,  the  col- 
lective body  of  the  priests  was  accounted,  somewhat  like 
the  Levites  in  the  later  Israel,  as  a  separate  portion  of  the 
people.  Even  under  the  rule  of  the  Greeks  the  old  religion 
of  the  state  and  the  national  priesthood  maintained  their 
place.  When  the  first  Seleucus  wished  to  found  the  new 
capital  of  his  empire,  the  already  mentioned  Seleucia,  he 
caused  the  Magians  to  fix  day  and  hour  for  it,  and  it  was 
only  after  those  Persians,  not  very  willingly,  had  cast  the 
desired  horoscope,  that  the  king  and  his  army,  in  accord- 
ance with  their  indication,  accomplished  the  solemn  lay- 
ing of  the  foundation-stone  of  the  new  Greek  city.  Thus 
by  his  side  stood  the  priests  of  Ahura  Mazda  as  counsel- 
lors, and  they,  not  those  of  the  Hellenic  Olympus,  were 
interrogated  in  public  affairs,  so  far  as  these  concerned 
divine  things.  As  a  matter  of  course  this  was  all  the  more 
the  case  with  the  Arsacids.  We  have  already  observed 
that  in  the  election  of  king,  along  wdth  the  council  of  the 
nobility,  that  of  the  priests  took  part.  King  Tiridates  of 
Armenia,  of  the  house  of  the  Arsacids,  came  to  Rome  at- 
tended by  a  train  of  Magians,  and  travelled  and  took  food 
according  to  their  directions,  even  in  company  with  the 
emperor  Nero,  who  gladly  allowed  the  foreign  wise  men  to 
preach  their  doctrine  and  to  conjure  spirits  for  him.  From 


12 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


this  certainly  it  does  not  follow  that  the  priestly  order  as 
such  exercised  an  essentially  determining  influence  on  the 
management  of  the  state  ;  but  the  Mazda-faith  was  by  no 
means  re-established  only  by  the  Sassanids  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, amidst  all  change  of  dynasties,  and  amidst  all  its  own 
development,  the  religion  of  the  land  of  Iran  remained  in 
its  outline  the  same. 

The  language  of  the  land  in  the  Parthian  empire  was 
the  native  language  of  Iran.  There  is  no 
Language.  tracc  pointing  to  any  foreign  language  having 
ever  been  in  public  use  under  the  Arsacids.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  the  Iranian  land-dialect  of  Babylonia  and 
the  writing  peculiar  to  this — as  both  were  developed  be- 
fore, and  in,  the  Arsacid  period  under  the  influence  of  the 
language  and  writing  of  the  Aramaean  neighbours — which 
are  covered  by  the  appellation  Pahlavi,  i.e.  Parthava,  and 
thereby  designated  as  those  of  the  empire  of  the  Parthians. 
Even  Greek  did  not  become  an  imperial  language  there. 
None  of  the  rulers  bear  even  as  a  second  name  a  Greek 
one  ;  and,  had  the  Arsacids  made  this  language  their  own, 
we  should  not  have  failed  to  find  Greek  inscriptions  in 
their  empire.  Certainly  their  coins  show  down  to  the  time 
of  Claudius  exclusively,^  and  predominantly  even  later, 
Greek  legends,  as  they  show  also  no  trace  of  the  religion 
of  the  land,  and  in  standard  attach  themselves  to  the 
local  coinage  of  the  Roman  east  provinces,  while  they  re- 
tain the  division  of  the  year  as  well  as  the  reckoning  by 
years  just  as  these  had  been  regulated  under  the  Seleucids. 
But  this  must  rather  be  taken  as  meaning  that  the  great- 
kings  themselves  did  not  coin  at  all,^  and  these  coins,  which 

^  The  oldest  known  coin  with  Pahlavi  writing  was  struck  in 
Claudius's  time  under  Vologasus  I. ;  it  is  bilingual,  and  gives  to  the 
king  in  Greek  his  full  title,  but  only  the  name  Arsaces,  in  Iranian 
merely  the  native  individual  name  shortened  {Yol.'). 

Usually  this  is  restricted  to  the  large  silver  money,  and  the 
small  silver  and  most  of  the  copper  are  regarded  as  of  royal  coinage. 
But  by  this  view  a  singular  secondary  part  in  coinage  is  assigned  to 
the  great-king.  More  correctly  perhaps  the  former  coinage  is  con- 
ceived of  as  predominantly  destined  for  dealings  abroad,  the  latter 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


13 


in  fact  served  essentially  for  intercourse  with  the  western 
neighbours,  were  struck  by  the  Greek  towns  of  the  em- 
pire in  the  name  of  the  sovereign.  The  designation  of  the 
king  on  these  coins  as  "  friend  of  Greeks "  [(juXikXrjv), 
which  already  meets  us  early/  and  is  constant  from  the 
time  of  Mithradates  I.,  i.e.  from  the  extension  of  the  state 
as  far  as  the  Tigris,  has  a  meaning  only,  if  it  is  the  Par- 
thian Greek  city  that  is  speaking  on  these  coins.  It  may 
be  conjectured  that  a  secondary  position  was  conceded  in 
public  use  to  the  Greek  language  in  the  Parthian  empire 
alongside  of  the  Persian,  similar  to  that  which  it  possessed 
in  the  Eoman  state  by  the  side  of  Latin.  The  gradual 
disappearance  of  Hellenism  under  the  Parthian  rule  may 
be  clearly  followed  on  these  urban  coins,  as  well  in  the 
emergence  of  the  native  language  alongside  and  instead  of 
the  Greek,  as  in  the  debasement  of  language  which  be- 
comes more  and  more  prominent.^ 

As  to  extent  the  kingdom  of  the  Arsacids  was  far  in- 
ferior, not  merely  to  the  great  state  of  the 
Parthian  em-  Achacmcnids,  but  also  to  that  of  their  imme- 
diate  predecessors,  the  state  of  the  Seleucids. 
Of  its  original  territory  they  possessed  only  the  larger 
eastern  half  ;  after  the  battle  with  the  Parthians,  in  which 
king  Antiochus  Sidetes,  a  contemporary  of  the  Gracchi, 
fell,  the  Syrian  kings  did  not  again  seriously  attempt  to 
assert  their  rule  beyond  the  Euphrates  ;  but  the  country  on 
this  side  of  the  Euphrates  remained  with  the  Occidentals. 

Both  coasts  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  even  the  Arabian,  were 
in  possession  of  the  Parthians,  and  the  navi- 

^  gation  was  thus  completely  in  their  power ; 

the  rest  of  the  Arabian  peninsula  did  not  obey  either  the 
Parthians  or  the  Romans  ruling  over  Egypt, 
as  predominantly  for  internal  intercourse  ;  the  diversities  subsisting 
between  the  two  kinds  are  also  explained  in  this  way. 

*The  first  ruler  that  bears  it  is  Phraapates  about  188  B.C.  (Percy 
Gardner,  Parthian  Coinage,  p.  27). 

2  Thus  there  stands  on  the  coins  of  Gotarzes  (under  Claudius) 
TwTep^TjS  fiaffiXevs  flaaiAeooV  vhs  K€Ka\ovfj.€fos  ^Apral^dvov,  On  the  later 
ones  the  Greek  legend  is  often  quite  unintelligible. 


14 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


To  describe  the  struggle  of  the  nations  for  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Indus  valley,  and  of  the  regions 
Sriudus"  bordering  on  it,  to  the  west  and  east,  so  far  as 
the  wholly  fragmentary  tradition  allows  of  a 
description  at  all,  is  not  the  task  of  our  survey ;  but  the 
main  lines  of  this  struggle,  which  constantly  goes  by  the 
side  of  that  waged  for  the  Euphrates  valley,  may  the  less 
be  omitted  in  this  connection,  as  our  tradition  does  not 
allow  us  to  follow  out  in  detail  the  circumstances  of  Iran 
to  the  east  in  their  influence  on  western  relations,  and  it 
hence  appears  necessary  at  least  to  realize  for  ourselves  its 
outlines.  Soon  after  the  death  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
the  boundary  between  Iran  and  India  was  drawn  by  the 
agreement  of  his  marshal  and  coheir  Seleucus  with  Chan- 
dragupta,  or  in  Greek  Sandracottos,  the  founder  of  the 
empire  of  the  Indians.  According  to  this  the  latter  ruled 
not  merely  over  the  Ganges-valley  in  all  its  extent  and  the 
whole  north-west  of  India,  but  in  the  region  of  the  Indus, 
at  least  over  a  part  of  the  upland  valley  of  what  is  now 
Cabul,  further  over  Arachosia  or  Afghanistan,  presumably 
also  over  the  waste  and  arid  Gedrosia,  the  modern  Beloo- 
chistan,  as  well  as  over  the  delta  and  mouths  of  the  Indus  ; 
the  documents  hewn  in  stone,  by  which  Chandragupta's 
grandson,  the  orthodox  Buddha- worshipper  Asoka,  incul- 
cated the  general  moral  law  on  his  subjects,  have  been 
found,  as  in  all  this  widely  extended  domain,  so  particu- 
larly in  the  region  of  Peshawur.^    The  Hindoo  Koosh,  the 

'  While  the  kingdom  of  Darius,  according  to  his  inscriptions,  in- 
cludes in  it  the  Gadara  (the  Gandh'ira  of  the  Indians,  TavZap7Tis  of 
the  Greeks  on  the  Cabul  river)  and  the  Hidu  (the  dwellers  by  the 
Indus),  the  former  are  in  one  of  the  inscriptions  of  Asoka  adduced 
among  his  subjects,  and  a  copy  of  his  great  edict  has  been  found  in 
Kapurdi  Giri  or  rather  in  Shahbaz  Garhi  (Yusufzai- district),  nearly 
27  miles  north-west  of  the  point  where  the  Cabul  river  falls  into 
the  Indus  at  Attock.  The  seat  of  the  government  of  these  north- 
west provinces  of  Asoka's  kingdom  was  (according  to  the  inscription 
C.  1.  Indicar.  i.  p  91)  Takkhasila,  Ta^iAa  of  the  Greeks,  some  40 
miles  E.S.E.  of  Attock,  the  seat  of  government  for  the  south-west- 
ern provinces  was  Ujjeni  ('O^tjj/tj).    The  eastern  part  of  the  Cabul 


Chap.  IX.  J 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier. 


15 


Parapanisus  of  the  ancients,  and  its  continuation  to  the 
east  and  west,  thus  separated  with  their  mighty  chain — 
pierced  only  by  few  passes — Iran  and  India.  But  this 
agreement  did  not  long  subsist. 

In  the  earlier  period  of  the  Diadochi  the  Greek  rulers  of 
the  kingdom  of  Bactra,  which  took  a  mighty 
empTre".^"'^'^"  impulse  ou  its  breaking  off  from  the  Seleucid 
state,  crossed  the  frontier  mountains,  brought 
a  considerable  part  of  the  Indus  valley  into  their  power, 
and  perhaps  established  themselves  still  farther  inland  in 
Hindostan,  so  that  the  centre  of  gravity  of  this  empire  was 
shifted  from  western  Iran  to  eastern  India,  and  Hellen- 
ism gave  way  to  an  Indian  type.  The  kings  of  this  em- 
pire were  called  Indian,  and  bore  subsequently  non-Greek 
names  ;  on  the  coins  the  native  Indian  language  and  writ- 
ing appear  by  the  side,  and  instead,  of  the  Greek,  just 
as  in  the  Partho-Persian  coinage  the  Pahlavi  comes  up 
alongside  of  the  Greek. 

Then  one  nation  more  entered  into  the  arena  ;  the  Scy- 
thians, or,  as  they  were  called  in  Iran  and  In- 
indo-scythians.  ^.^^        Sacac,  brokc  off  from  their  ancestral 

settlements  on  the  Jaxartes  and  crossed  the  mountains 
southward.  The  Bactrian  province  came  at  last  in  great 
part  into  their  power,  and  at  some  time  in  the  last  cen- 
tury of  the  Eoman  republic  they  must  have  established 
themselves  in  the  modern  Afghanistan  and  Beloochistan. 
On  that  account  in  the  early  imperial  period  the  coast  on 
both  sides  of  the  mouth  of  the  Indus  about  Minnagara 
is  called  Scythian,  and  in  the  interior  the  district  of  the 
Drangae  lying  to  the  west  of  Candahar  bears  subsequently 

valley  thus  belonged  at  any  rate  to  Asoka's  empire.  It  is  not  quite 
impossible  that  the  Khyber  pass  formed  the  boundary  ;  but  prob- 
ably the  whole  Cabul  valley  belonged  to  India,  and  the  boundary  to 
the  south  of  Cabul  was  formed  by  the  sharp  line  of  the  Suleiman 
range,  and  farther  to  the  south-west  by  the  Bolan  pass.  Of  the 
later  Indo-Scythi an  king  Huvishka  (Ooerke  of  the  coins),  who  seems 
to  have  resided  on  the  Yamuna  in  Mathura,  an  inscription  has  been 
found  at  Wardak  not  far  northward  from  Cabul  (according  to  infor 
mation  from  Oldenberg). 


16 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


the  name  ''land  of  the  Sacae,"  Sacastane,  the  modern  Se- 
istan.  This  immigration  of  the  Scythians  into  the  prov- 
inces of  the  Bactro-Indian  empire  doubtless  restricted 
and  injured  it,  somewhat  as  the  Roman  empire  was  af- 
fected by  the  first  migrations  of  the  Germans,  but  did  not 
destroy  it ;  under  Vespasian  there  still  subsisted  a  prob- 
ably independent  Bactrian  state.' 

Under  the  Julian  and  Claudian  emperors  the  Parthians 

seem  to  have  been  the  leading  power  at  the 
rmp£e:^°'^''''°    mouth  of  the  Indus.    A  trustworthy  reporter 

from  the  Augustan  age  specifies  that  same 
Sacastane  among  the  Parthian  provinces,  and  calls  the 
king  of  the  Saco-Scythians  an  under-king  of  the  Arsacids  ; 
as  the  last  Parthian  province  towards  the  east  he  desig- 
nates Arachosia  with  the  capital  Alexandropolis,  probably 
Candahar.  Soon  afterwards,  indeed,  in  Vespasian's  time, 
Parthian  princes  rule  in  Minnagara.  This,  however,  was 
for  the  empire  on  the  river  Indus  more  a  change  of  dy- 
nasty than  an  annexation  proper  to  the  state  of  Ctesiphon. 
The  Parthian  prince  Gondopharus,  whom  the  Christian 
legend  connects  with  St.  Thomas,  the  apostle  of  the  Par- 
thians and  Indians,^  certainly  ruled  from  Minnagara  as 
far  up  as  Peshawur  and  Cabul ;  but  these  rulers  use,  like 
their  superiors  in  the  Indian  empire,  the  Indian  language 
alongside  of  the  Greek,  and  name  themselves  great-kings 
like  those  of  Ctesiphon  ;  they  appear  to  have  been  not  the 
less  rivals  to  the  Arsacids,  on  account  of  their  belonging 
to  the  same  princely  house. 

'  The  Egyptian  merchant  named  in  note  3  makes  mention,  c.  47, 
of  "the  warlike  people  of  the  Bactrians,  who  have  their  own  king."' 
At  that  time,  therefore,  Bactria  was  separated  from  the  Indus-em- 
pire that  was  under  Parthian  princes.  Strabo,  too  (xi.  11,  1,  p. 
516)  treats  the  Bactro-Indian  empire  as  belonging  to  the  past. 

^  Probably  he  is  the  Kaspar — in  older  tradition  Gathaspar — who 
appears  among  the  holy  three  kings  from  the  East  (Gutschmid,  • 
Rhein.  Mus.  xix.  162). 

^  The  most  definite  testimony  to  the  Parthian  rule  in  these  regions 
is  found  in  the  description  of  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea  drawn  up 
by  an  Egyptian  merchant  under  Vespasian j  c.  36  :  "  Behind  the 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier. 


17 


This  Parthian  dynasty  was  then  followed  in  the  Indian 
^    .    ^        empire  after  a  short  interval  by  what  is  desig- 
Sacae  on  the     nated  in  Indian  tradition  as  that  of  the  Sacae 
^^^^      king  Kanerku  or  Kanishka,  which 
begins  with  78  a.d.  and  subsisted  at  least  down  to  the 

moutli  of  the  Indus  in  the  interior  lies  the  capital  of  Scythia  Min- 
nagara ;  but  this  is  ruled  by  the  Parthians,  who  constantly  chase 
away  one  another  '  (uiri)  nap^coy  (tvv^')^u>s  aW^Aovs  iuSKoKSyrcov). 
The  same  is  repeated  in  a  somewhat  confused  way,  c.  41 ;  it  might 
here  appear  as  if  Minnagara  lay  in  India  itself  above  Barygaza,  and 
Ptolemy  has  already  been  led  astray  by  this;  but  certainly  the 
writer,  who  speaks  as  to  the  interior  only  from  hearsay,  has  only 
wished  to  say  that  a  large  town  Minnagara  lay  inland  not  far  from 
Barygaza,  and  much  cotton  was  brought  thence  to  Barygaza.  The 
numerous  traces  also  of  Alexander,  which  occur  according  to  the 
same  authority  in  Minnagara,  can  be  found  only  on  the  Indus, 
not  in  Gujerat.  The  position  of  Minnagara  on  the  lower  Indus 
not  far  from  Hyderabad,  and  the  existence  of  a  Parthian  rule 
there  under  Vespasian,  appear  hereby  assured. — With  this  we  may 
be  allowed  to  combine  the  coins  of  king  Gondopharus  or  Hyn- 
dopherres,  who  in  a  very  old  Christian  legend  is  converted  to 
Christianity  by  St.  Thomas,  the  apostle  of  the  Parthians  and  In- 
dians, and  in  fact  appears  to  belong  to  the  first  period  of  the  Eoman 
empire  (Sallet,  Wu?n.  Zeitschr.  vi.  355  ;  Gutschmid,  BTiein.  Mus. 
xix.  162) ;  of  his  brother's  son  Abdagases  (Sallet,  ib.  p.  365),  who 
may  be  identical  with  the  Parthian  prince  of  this  name  in  Tacitus, 
Ann.  vi.  36,  at  any  rate  bears  a  Parthian  name ;  and  lastly  of  king 
Sanabarus,  who  must  have  reigned  shortly  after  Hyndopherres, 
perhaps  was  his  successor.  Here  belongs  also  a  number  of  other 
coins  marked  with  Parthian  names,  Arsaces,  Pacorus,  Vonones. 
This  coinage  attaches  itself  decidedly  to  that  of  the  Arsacids  (Sallet, 
ib.  p.  377)  ;  the  silver  pieces  of  Gondopharus  and  of  Sanabarus — of 
the  others  the  coins  are  almost  solely  copper — correspond  exactly 
to  the  Arsacid  drachmae.  To  all  appearance  these  belong  to  the 
Parthian  princes  of  Minnagara  ;  the  appearance  here  of  Indian 
legend  alongside  of  the  Greek,  as  of  Pahlavi  writing  among  the  late 
Arsacids,  suits  this  view.  These,  however,  are  not  coins  of  sa- 
traps, but,  as  the  Egyptian  indicates,  of  great-kings  rivalling  those  of 
Ctesiphon  ;  Hyndopherres  names  himself  in  very  corrupt  Greek 
^a<n\€vs  ^a(ri\4(au  jx4yas  avTOKpdTwp,  and  in  good  Indian  "Maharajah 
Rajadi  Rajah."  If,  as  is  not  improbable,  under  the  Mambaros  or 
Akabaros,  whom  the  Periplus,  c.  41,  52,  designates  as  ruler  of  the 
coast  of  Barygaza,  there  lurks  the  Sanabarus  of  the  coins,  the  latter 
Vol.  II.— 2 


18 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


third  century."  They  belong  to  the  Scythians,  whose  im- 
migration was  formerly  mentioned,  and  on  their  coins  the 
Scythian  language  takes  the  place  of  the  Indian. Thus 

belongs  to  tlie  time  of  Nero  or  Vespasian,  and  ruled  not  merely  at 
tlie  mouths  of  the  Indus,  but  also  over  Gujerat.  Moreover,  if  an 
inscription  found  not  far  from  Peshawur  is  rightly  referred  to  king 
Gondopharus,  his  rule  must  have  extended  up  thither,  probably  as 
far  as  Cabul. — The  fact  that  Corbulo  in  the  year  60  sent  the  embassy 
of  the  Hyrcanians  who  had  revolted  from  the  Parthians— in  order 
that  they  might  not  be  intercepted  by  the  latter — to  the  coast  of 
the  Red  Sea,  whence  they  might  reach  their  home  without  setting 
foot  on  Parthian  territory  (Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  25),  tells  in  favour 
of  the  view  that  the  Indus  valley  at  that  time  was  not  subject  to 
the  ruler  of  Ctesiphon. 

1  That  the  great  kingdom  of  the  Arsacids  of  Minnagara  did  not 
subsist  much  beyond  the  time  of  Nero,  is  probable  from  the  coins. 
It  is  questionable  what  rulers  followed  them.  The  Bactro-Indian 
rulers  of  Greek  names  belong  predominantly,  perhaps  all  of  them, 
to  the  pre-Augustan  epoch  ;  and  various  indigenous  names  e.g. 
Maues  and  Azes,  fall  in  point  of  language  and  writing  {e.g.  the 
form  of  the  w  n)  before  this  time.  On  the  other  hand  the  coins 
of  the  kings  Kozulokadpliises  and  Oemokadphises,  and  those  of 
the  Sacian  kings,  Kanerku  and  his  successors,  while  all  are  clearly 
characterised  as  belonging  to  one  coinage  by  the  gold  stater  of  the 
weight  of  the  Roman  aureus,  which  does  not  previously  occur  in 
the  Indian  coinage,  are  to  all  appearance  later  than  Gondopharus 
and  Sanabarus.  They  show  how  the  state  of  the  Indus  valley  as- 
sumed a  national  Indian  type  in  ever  increasing  measure  in  con- 
trast to  the  Hellenes  as  well  as  to  the  Iranians.  The  reign  of  these 
Kadphises  will  thus  fall  between  the  Indo-Parthian  rulers  and  the 
dynasty  of  the  Sacae,  which  latter  begins  with  A.D.  78  (Oldenberg, 
in  Sallet's  Zeitschr.  fiir  Num.  viii.  292).  Coins  of  these  Sacian 
kings,  found  in  the  treasure  of  Peshawur,  name  in  a  remarkable 
way  Greek  gods  in  a  mutilated  form,  Hpa/ctAo,  SapaTro,  alongside  of 
the  national  BouSo,  The  latest  of  their  coins  show  the  influence  of 
the  oldest  Sassanid  coinage,  and  might  belong  to  the  second  half  of 
the  third  century  (Sallet,  Zeitschr.  fiir  Num.  vi.  224). 

^  The  Indo-Greek  and  the  Indo-Parthian  rulers,  just  as  the  Kad- 
phises, make  use  on  their  coins  to  a  large  extent  of  the  indigenous 
Indian  language  and  writing  alongside  of  the  Greek:  the  Sacian 
kings  on  the  other  hand  never  used  the  Indian  language  and  In- 
dian alphabet,  but  employ  exclusively  the  Greek  letters,  and  the 
non-Greek  legends  of  their  coins  are  beyond  doubt  Scythian.  Thus 
ou  Kanerku's  gold  pieces  there  sometimes  stands  /8o(rtAe0j  fiaaiAfwv 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Eiophrates  Frontier. 


19 


in  the  region  of  the  Indus,  after  the  Indians  and  Hellenes, 
Parthians  and  Scythians  bore  sway  in  the  first  three  cen- 
turies of  our  era.  But  even  under  the  foreign  dynasties 
a  national  Indian  type  of  state  was  established  and  held 
its  gi'ound,  and  opposed  a  not  less  permanent  barrier  to 
the  development  of  the  Pai-tho-Persian  power  in  the  East 
than  did  the  Roman  state  in  the  West. 

Towards  the  north  and  north-east  Iran  bordered  with 
Turan.    As  the  western  and  southern  shores 
sc^wans.  Caspian  Sea  and  the  upper  valleys  of 

the  Oxus  and  Jaxartes  offered  an  appropriate 
seat  for  civilisation,  so  the  steppe  round  the  Sea  of  Aral 
and  the  extensive  plain  stretching  behind  it  belonged  by 
right  to  the  roving  peoples.  There  were  among  those 
nomads  probably  individual  tribes  kindred  to  the  Iran- 
ians ;  but  these  have  no  part  in  the  Iranian  civilisation, 
and  it  is  this  element  which  determines  the  historical 
position  of  Ii'an,  that  it  forms  the  bulwark  of  the  peoples 
of  culture  againt  those  hordes,  who,  as  Scythians,  Sacae, 
Huns,  Mongols,  Turks,  appear  to  have  no  other  destiny 
in  the  world's  history  than  that  of  annihilating  culture. 
Bactria,  the  great  bulwark  of  Iran  against  Turan,  sufficed 
for  this  defence  during  a  considerable  time  under  its 
Greek  rulers  in  the  epoch  after  Alexander  ;  but  we  have 
already  mentioned  that  subsequently,  although  it  did  not 
perish,  it  no  longer  availed  to  prevent  the  Scythians  from 
pressing  onward  towards  the  south.  With  the  decay  of 
the  Bactrian  power  the  same  task  was  transferred  to  the 
Ai'sacids.  How  far  they  responded  to  it  it  is  difficult  to 
say.  In  the  first  period  of  the  empire  the  great-kings  of 
Ctesiphon  seem  to  have  driven  back  the  Scythians  or  to 

KavfjpKov,  sometimes  pao  vavopao  KavnpKi  Kopauo,  wliere  the  first  two 
words  must  be  a  Scythian  form  of  tlie  Indian  Raj  adi  Raj  all,  and  the 
two  following  contain  the  personal  and  the  family  name  (Gushana) 
of  the  king  (Oldenberg,  I.e.  p.  294).  Thus  these  Sacae  were  foreign 
rulers  in  India  in  another  sense  than  the  Bactrian  Hellenes  and 
the  Parthians.  Yet  the  inscriptions  set  up  under  them  in  India 
are  not  Scythian  but  Indian. 


20 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


have  brouglit  tliem  into  subjection  in  the  northern  prov- 
inces as  well  as  to  the  south  of  the  Hindoo  Koosh  ;  they 
wrested  from  them  again  a  portion  of  the  Bactrian  terri- 
tory. But  it  is  doubtful  what  limits  were  here  fixed,  and 
whether  they  were  at  all  lasting.  There  is  frequent  men- 
tion of  wars  between  the  Parthians  and  Scythians.  The 
latter,  here  in  the  first  instance  dwellers  around  the  Sea 
of  Aral,  the  forefathers  of  the  modern  Turkomans,  are  reg- 
ularly the  aggressors,  inasmuch  as  they  partly  by  cross- 
ing over  the  Caspian  Sea  invade  the  valleys  of  the  Cyrus 
and  the  Araxes,  partly  issuing  from  their  steppes  pillage 
the  rich  plains  of  Hyrcania  and  the  fertile  oasis  of  Mar- 
giana  (Merv).  The  border-regions  agreed  to  buy  off 
the  levy  of  arbitrary  contributions  by  tributes,  which 
were  regularly  called  up  at  fixed  terms,  just  as  at  present 
the  Bedouins  of  Syria  levy  the  kuhha  from  the  farmers 
there.  The  Parthian  government  thus,  at  least  in  the 
earlier  imperial  period,  was  as  little  able  as  the  Turkish  gov- 
ernment of  the  present  day  to  secure  here  to  the  peaceful 
subject  the  fruits  of  his  toil,  and  to  establish  a  durable 
state  of  peace  on  the  frontier.  Even  for  the  imperial 
power  itself  these  border-troubles  remained  an  open  sore  ; 
often  they  exercised  an  influence  on  the  wars  of  succes- 
sion of  the  Arsacids  as  well  as  on  their  disputes  with  Kome. 
We  have  set  forth  in  its  due  place  how  the  attitude  of 
the  Parthians  to  the  Komans  came  to  be 
Parthian  fron-  shaped  and  the  boundaries  of  the  two  great 
tier-regions.  powcrs  to  bc  established.  While  the  Arme- 
nians had  been  rivals  of  the  Parthians,  and  the  kingdom 
on  the  Araxes  set  itself  to  play  the  part  of  great-king  in 
anterior  Asia,  the  Parthians  had  in  general  maintained 
friendly  relations  with  the  Romans  as  the  foes  of  their 
foes.  But,  after  the  overthrow  of  Mithradates  and  Tigranes, 
the  Romans  had,  particularly  through  the  arrangements 
made  by  Pompeius,  taken  up  a  position  which  was  hardly 
compatible  with  serious  and  lasting  peace  between  the  two 
states.  In  the  south  Syria  was  not  under  direct  Roman 
rule,  and  the  Roman  legions  kept  guard  on  the  margin  of 


Chap.  IX.  ]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


21 


the  great  desert  which  separates  the  lands  of  the  coast  from 
the  valley  of  the  Euphrates.  In  the  north  Cappadocia  and 
Armenia  were  vassal-principalities  of  Eome.  The  tribes 
bordering  on  Armenia  to  the  northward,  the  Colchians, 
Iberians,  Albanians,  were  thereby  necessarily  withdrawn 
from  Parthian  influence,  and  were,  at  least  according  to 
the  Eoman  way  of  apprehending  the  matter,  likewise  Ro- 
man dependencies.  The  lesser  Media  or  Atropatene 
(Aderbijan),  adjoining  Armenia  to  the  south-east,  and  sep- 
arated from  it  by  the  Araxes,  had  already  confronted  the 
Seleucids  with  its  ancient  native  dynasty  reaching  back  to 
the  time  of  the  Achaemenids,  and  had  even  asserted  its  in- 
dependence ;  under  the  Arsacids  the  king  of  this  region 
appears,  according  to  circumstances,  as  a  vassal  of  the 
Parthians  or  as  independent  of  these  by  leaning  on  the 
Romans.  The  determining  influence  of  Rome  consequent- 
ly reached  as  far  as  the  Caucasus  and  the  western  shore 
of  the  Caspian  Sea.  This  involved  an  overlapping  of  the 
limits  indicated  by  the  national  relations.  The  Hellenic 
nationality  had  doubtless  so  far  gained  a  footing  on  the 
south  coast  of  the  Black  Sea  and  in  the  interior  of  Cappa- 
docia and  Commagene,  that  here  the  Roman  ascendency 
found  in  it  a  base  of  support  ;  but  Armenia,  even  under 
the  long  years  of  Roman  rule,  remained  always  a  non- 
Greek  land,  knit  to  the  Parthian  state  with  indestructible 
ties,  by  community  of  language  and  of  faith,  the  numerous 
intermarriages  of  people  of  rank,  and  similarity  of  dress 
and  of  armour.^  The  Roman  levy  and  the  Roman  taxa- 
tion were  never  extended  to  Armenia ;  at  most  the  land 
defrayed  the  raising  and  the  maintenance  of  its  own  troops, 
and  the  provisioning  of  the  Roman  troops  stationed  there. 

'  Arrian,  wlio,  as  governor  of  Cappadocia,  had  liimself  wielded 
command  over  the  Armenians  {contra  Al.  29),  always  in  the 
Tactica  names  the  Armenians  and  Parthians  together  (4,  3,  44,  1, 
as  respects  the  heavy  cavalry,  the  mailed  Kovrocpopoi  and  the  light 
cavalry,  the  aKpo^oXiaTai  or  lirnoTo^STai ;  34,  7  as  respects  the  wide 
hose) ;  and  where  he  speaks  of  Hadrian's  introduction  of  barbaric 
cavalry  into  the  Roman  army,  he  traces  the  mounted  archers  back  to 
the  model  of  "  the  Parthians  or  Armenians"  (44,  1). 


22 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


The  Armenian  merchants  formed  the  channel  for  the  ex- 
change of  goods  over  the  Caucasus  with  Scythia,  over  the 
Caspian  Sea  with  east  Asia  and  China,  down  the  Tigris 
with  Babylonia  and  India,  towards  the  west  with  Cap- 
padocia  ;  nothing  would  have  been  more  natural  than  to 
include  the  politically  dependent  land  in  the  domain  of 
Koman  tribute  and  customs  ;  yet  this  step  was  never 
taken. 

The  incongruity  between  the  national  and  the  political 
connections  of  Armenia  forms  an  essential  element  in  the 
conflict — prolonged  through  the  whole  imperial  period — 
with  its  eastern  neighbour.  It  was  discerned  doubtless 
on  the  Eoman  side  that  annexation  beyond  the  Euphrates 
was  an  encroachment  on  the  family-domain  of  Oriental 
nationality,  and  was  not  any  increase  proper  of  power  for 
Kome.  But  the  ground  or,  if  the  phrase  be  preferred,  the 
excuse  for  the  continuance  of  such  encroachment  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  subsistence  side  by  side  of  great  states 
with  equal  rights  was  incompatible  with  the  system  of 
Koman  policy,  we  may  even  say  with  the  policy  of  anti- 
quity in  general.  The  Eoman  empire  knew  as  limit,  in  the 
strict  sense,  only  the  sea  or  a  land-district  unarmed.  To 
the  weaker  but  yet  warlike  commonwealth  of  the  Parthians 
the  Komans  always  grudged  a  position  of  power,  and  took 
away  from  it  what  these  in  their  turn  could  not  forego ; 
and  therefore  the  relation  between  Eome  and  Iran  through 
the  whole  imperial  period  was  one  of  perpetual  feud,  in- 
terruj)ted  only  by  armistices,  concerning  the  left  bank  of 
the  Euphrates. 

In  the  treaties  concluded  with  the  Parthians  by  Lu- 

cullus  (iv.  88)  and  Pompeius  (iv.  152)  the 
during  the  civil  Euphrates  was  recognized  as  the  boundary, 

and  so  Mesopotamia  was  ceded  to  them.  But 
this  did  not  prevent  the  Eomans  from  receiving  the  rulers 
of  Edessa  among  their  clients,  and  from  laying  claim  to  a 
great  part  of  northern  Mesopotamia  at  least  for  their  in- 
direct rule,  apparently  by  extending  the  limits  of  Armenia 
towards  the  south  (iv.  174).    On  that  account,  after  some 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


23 


delay,  the  Parthian  government  began  the  war  against  the 
Eomans,  in  the  form  of  declaring  it  against  the  Armenians. 
The  answer  to  this  was  the  campaign  of  Crassus,  and,  after 
the  defeat  at  Carrhae  (iv.  403  f.),  the  bringing  back  of 
Armenia  under  Parthian  power  ;  we  may  add,  the  resump- 
tion of  their  claims  on  the  western  half  of  the  Seleucid 
state,  the  carrying  out  of  which,  it  is  true,  proved  at  that 
time  unsuccessful  (iv.  408).  During  the  whole  twenty 
years  of  civil  war,  in  which  the  Roman  republic  perished 
and  ultimately  the  principate  was  established,  the  state 
of  war  between  the  Eomans  and  Parthians  continued, 
and  not  seldom  the  two  struggles  became  intermixed. 
Pompeius  had,  before  the  decisive  battle,  attempted  to 
gain  king  Orodes  as  ally ;  but,  when  the  latter  demanded 
the  cession  of  Syria,  Pompeius  could  not  prevail  on  him- 
self to  deliver  up  the  province  which  he  had  personally 
made  Eoman.  After  the  catastrophe  he  had  nevertheless 
resolved  to  do  so  ;  but  accidents  directed  his  flight  not  to 
Syria,  but  to  Egypt,  where  he  met  his  end  (iv.  508).  The 
Parthians  appeared  on  the  point  of  once  more  breaking 
into  Syria ;  and  the  later  leaders  of  the  republicans  did 
not  disdain  the  aid  of  the  public  foe.  Even  in  Caesar's 
lifetime  Caecilius  Bassus,  when  he  raised  the  banner  of 
revolt  in  Syria,  had  at  once  called  in  the  Parthians.  They 
had  followed  this  call ;  Pacorus,  the  son  of  Orodes,  had 
defeated  Caesar's  lieutenant  and  liberated  the  troops  of 
Bassus  besieged  by  him  in  Apamea  (709).  For 
this  reason,  as  well  as  in  order  to  take  revenge 
for  Carrhae,  Caesar  had  resolved  to  go  in  the  next  spring 
personally  to  Syria  and  to  cross  the  Euphrates ;  but  his 
death  prevented  the  execution  of  this  plan.  When  Cassius 
thereupon  took  arms  in  Syria,  he  entered  into  relations 
with  the  Parthian  king ;  and  in  the  decisive  battle  at 
^2  Philippi  (712)  Parthian  mounted  archers  joined 

in  fighting  for  the  freedom  of  Eome.  When 
the  republicans  succumbed,  the  great-king,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, maintained  a  quiet  attitude ;  and  Antonius,  while 
designing  probably  to  execute  the  plans  of  the  dictator, 


24 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


had  at  first  enough  to  do  with  the  settlement  of  the  East. 
The  collision  could  not  fail  to  take  place ;  the  assailant 
this  time  was  the  Parthian  king. 

In  713  when  Caesar  the  son  fought  in  Italy  with  the 
generals  and  the  wife  of  Antonius,  and  the 
latter  tarried  inactive  in  Egypt  beside  queen 
in  Syria  and      Cleopatra,  Orodes  responded  to  the  pressure 
Asia  Minor.  ^  Komau  living  with  him  in  exile,  Quintus 

Labienus,  and  sent  the  latter,  a  son  of  the  dictator's  em- 
bittered opponent  Titus  Labienus,  and  formerly  an  officer 
in  the  army  of  Brutus,  as  well  as  (713)  his  son 
Pacorus  with  a  strong  army  over  the  frontier. 
The  governor  of  Syria,  Decidius  Saxa,  succumbed  to  the 
unexpected  attack  ;  the  Koman  garrisons,  formed  in  great 
part  of  old  soldiers  of  the  republican  army,  placed  them- 
selves under  the  command  of  their  former  officer  ;  Apamea 
and  Antioch,  and  generally  all  the  towns  of  Syria,  except 
the  island-town  of  Tyre  which  could  not  be  subdued 
without  a  fleet,  submitted ;  on  the  flight  to  Cilicia  Saxa, 
in  order  not  to  be  taken  prisoner,  put  himself  to  death. 
After  the  occupation  of  Syria  Pacorus  turned  against 
Palestine,  Labienus  towards  the  province  of  Asia ;  here 
too  the  cities  far  and  wide  submitted  or  were  forcibly 
vanquished,  with  the  exception  of  the  Carian  Stratonicea. 
Antonius,  whose  attention  was  claimed  by  the  Italian  com- 
plications, sent  no  succour  to  his  governors,  and  for  almost 
two  years  (from  the  end  of  713  to  the  spring 
of  715)  Syria  and  a  great  part  of  Asia  Minor 
were  commanded  by  the  Parthian  generals  and  by  the 
republican  imperator  Labienus — Parihicus,  as  he  called 
himself  with  shameless  irony,  not  the  Eoman  who  van- 
quished the  Parthians,  but  the  Roman  who  with  Parthian 
aid  vanquished  his  countrymen. 

Only  after  the  threatened  rupture  between  the  two 
holders  of  power  was  averted,  Antonius  sent 
VentidiJsBalsus.  ^  ucw  army  under  the  conduct  of  Publius 
Ventidius  Bassus,  to  whom  he  entrusted  the 
command  in  the  provinces  of  Asia  and  Syria.    The  able 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier. 


25 


general  encountered  in  Asia  Labienus  alone  with  his 
Roman  troops,  and  rapidly  drove  him  out  of  the  province. 
At  the  boundary  between  Asia  and  Cilicia,  in  the  passes  of 
the  Taurus,  a  division  of  Parthians  wished  to  rally  their 
fugitive  allies;  but  they  too  were  beaten  before  they  could 
unite  with  Labienus,  and  thereupon  the  latter  was  caught 
on  his  flight  in  Cilicia  and  put  to  death.  With  like  good 
fortune  Ventidius  gained  by  fighting  the  passes  of  the 
Amanus  on  the  border  of  Cilicia  and  Syria  ;  here  Pharna- 
pates,  the  best  of  the  Parthian  generals,  fell 
(715).  Thus  was  Syria  delivered  from  the 
enemy.  Certainly  in  the  following  year  Pacorus  once 
more  crossed  the  Euphrates ;  but  only  to  meet  destruc- 
tion with  the  greatest  part  of  his  army  in  a  decisive  en- 
gagement at  Gindarus,  north-east  of  Antioch 
(9th  June  716).  It  was  a  victory  which  coun- 
terbalanced in  some  measure  the  day  of  Carrhae,  and 
one  of  permanent  effect ;  for  long  the  Parthians  did  not 
again  show  their  troops  on  the  Roman  bank  of  the  Eu- 
phrates. 

If  it  was  in  the  interest  of  Rome  to  extend  her  conquests 
towards  the  East,  and  to  enter  on  the  inherit- 
PoBition  of       ance  of  Alexander  the  Great  there  in  all  its 

Antonius.  ,      ,  •  i 

extent,  the  circumstances  were  never  more 
38.  favourable  for  doing  so  than  in  the  year  716. 

The  relations  of  the  two  rulers  to  each  other 
had  become  re-established  seasonably  for  that  purpose,  and 
even  Caesar  at  that  time  had  probably  a  sincere  wish  for 
an  earnest  and  successful  conduct  of  the  war  by  his  co- 
ruler  and  new  son-in-law.  The  disaster  of  Gindarus  had 
called  forth  a  severe  dynastic  crisis  among  the  Parthians. 
King  Orodes,  deeply  agitated  by  the  death  of  his  eldest 
and  ablest  son,  resigned  the  government  in  favour  of  his 
second  son  Phraates.  The  latter,  in  order  the  better  to 
secure  for  himself  the  throne,  exercised  a  reign  of  terror, 
to  which  his  numerous  brothers  and  his  old  father  himself, 
as  well  as  a  number  of  the  high  nobles  of  the  kingdom, 
ieU  victims ;  others  of  them  left  the  country  and  sought 


26 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


protection  with  the  Komans,  among  them  the  powerful 
and  respected  Monaeses.  Never  had  Kome  in  the  East  an 
army  of  equal  numbers  and  excellence  as  at  this  time : 
Antonius  was  able  to  lead  over  the  Euphrates  no  fewer 
than  16  legions,  about  70,000  Koman  infantry,  about 
40,000  auxiliaries,  10,000  Spanish  and  Gallic,  and  6000 
Armenian  horsemen;  at  least  half  of  them  were  veteran 
troops  brought  up  from  the  West,  all  ready  to  follow  any- 
where their  beloved  and  honoured  leader,  the  victor  of 
Philippi,  and  to  crown  the  brilliant  victories,  which  had 
been  already  achieved  not  by  but  for  him  over  the  Par- 
thians,  with  still  greater  successes  under  his  own  leader- 
ship. 

In  reality  Antonius  had  in  view  the  erection  of  an  Asiatic 
^.   .  great-kingdom  after  the  model  of  that  of  Alex- 

ander. As  Crassus  before  his  invasion  had 
announced  that  he  would  extend  the  Roman  rule  as 
far  as  Bactria  and  India,  so  Antonius  named  the  first  son, 
whom  the  Egyptian  queen  bore  to  him,  by  the  name  of 
Alexander.  He  appears  to  have  directly  intended,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  bring— excluding  the  completely  Hellenised 
provinces  of  Bithynia  and  Asia — the  whole  imperial  terri- 
tory in  the  East,  so  far  as  it  was  not  already  under  depend- 
ent petty  princes,  into  this  form  ;  and  on  the  other  hand 
to  make'  all  the  regions  of  the  East  once  occupied  by  Occi- 
dentals subject  to  himself  in  the  form  of  satrapies.  Of 
eastern  Asia  Minor  the  largest  portion  and  the  military 
primacy  were  assigned  to  the  most  warlike  of  the  princes 
there,  the  Galatian  Amyntas  (i.  362).  Alongside  of  the 
Galatian  prince  stood  the  princes  of  Paphlagonia,  the  de- 
scendants of  Deiotarus,  dispossessed  from  Galatia ;  Pole- 
mon,  the  new  prince  in  Pontus,  and  the  husband  of  Pytho- 
doris  the  granddaughter  of  Antonius  ;  and  moreover,  as 
hitherto,  the  kings  of  Cappadocia  and  Commagene.  Anto- 
nius united  a  great  part  of  Cilicia  and  Syria,  as  well  as  of 
Cyprus  and  Cyrene,  with  the  Egyptian  state,  to  which  he 
thus  almost  restored  its  limits  as  they  had  been  under  the 
Ptolemies  ;  and  as  he  had  made  queen  Cleopatra,  Caesar's 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


27 


mistress,  his  own  or  rather  his  wife,  so  her  illegitimate 
child  by  Caesar,  Caesarion,  already  earlier  recognised  as 
joint  ruler  of  Egypt,'  obtained  the  reversion  of  the  old 
kingdom  of  the  Ptolemies,  and  her  illegitimate  son  by 
Antonius,  Ptolemaeus  Philadelphus,  obtained  that  of  Syria. 
To  another  son,  whom  she  had  borne  to  Antonius,  the 
already  mentioned  Alexander,  Armenia  was  for  the  present 
assigned  as  a  payment  to  account  for  the  rule  of  the  East 
conceived  as  in  reserve  for  him.  With  this  great-kingdom 
organised  after  the  Oriental  fashion''  he  thought  to  com- 
bine the  principate  over  the  West.  He  himself  did  not 
assume  the  name  of  king,  on  the  contrary  bore  in  presence 
of  his  countrymen  and  the  soldiers  only  those  titles  which 
also  belonged  to  Caesar.  But  on  imperial  coins  with  a 
Latin  legend  Cleopatra  is  called  queen  of  kings,  her  sons 
by  Antonius  at  least  kings  ;  the  coins  show  the  head  of  his 
eldest  son  along  with  that  of  his  father,  as  if  the  hereditary 
character  were  a  matter  of  course  ;  the  marriage  and  the 
succession  of  the  legitimate  and  the  illegitimate  children 
are  treated  by  him,  as  was  the  usage  with  the  great-kings 
of  the  East,  or,  as  he  himself  said,  with  the  divine  freedom 

'  Caesar's  illegitimate  son  TlroXefxatos  6  koX  Ka7ffap  Oehs  (piXoirdrayp 
<piXoix-l)T(>}p,  as  his  royal  designation  runs  {G.  I.  Or.  4717),  entered 
on  the  joint  rule  of  Egypt  in  the  Egyptian  year  29  Aug.  711/2  as  the 
era  shows  (Wescher,  Biillett.  clelV  Inst.  1866,  p.  199;  Krall,  Wiener 
Staclieii.,  v.  313).  As  he  came  in  place  of  Ptolemaeus  the  younger, 
the  husband  and  brother  of  his  mother,  the  setting  aside  of  the  lat- 
ter by  Cleopatra,  of  which  the  particulars  are  not  known,  must  have 
taken  place  just  then,  and  have  furnished  the  occasion  to  proclaim 
him  as  king  of  Egypt.  Dio  also,  xlvii.  31,  places  his  nomination  in 
the  summer  of  712  before  the  battle  of  Philippi.  It 
was  thus  not  the  work  of  Antonius,  but  sanctioned  by 
the  two  rulers  in  concert  at  a  time  when  it  could  not  but  be  their 
object  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the  queen  of  Egypt,  who  certainly  had 
from  the  outset  ranged  herself  on  their  side. 

^  This  is  what  Augustus  means  when  he  says  that  he  had  brought 
again  to  the  empire  the  provinces  of  the  East  in  great  part  distri- 
buted among  kings  {Mon.  Ancyr.  5,  41 :  provindas  omnis,  quae  trans 
Hadrianum  mare  wrgunt  ad  oi'ientem,  Cyrenasque,  iam  ex  parte 
magna  regibus  eas  possidentibus    .    ,    .  reciperavi). 


28 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


of  his  ancestor  Herakles  •}  the  said  Alexander  and  his  twin 
sister  were  named  by  him,  the  former  Helios,  the  latter 
Selene,  after  the  model  of  those  same  great-kings,  and,  as 
once  upon  a  time  the  Persian  king  bestowed  on  the  refu- 
gee Themistocles  a  number  of  Asiatic  cities,  so  he  be- 
stowed on  the  Parthian  Monaeses,  who  went  over  to  him, 
three  cities  of  Syria.  In  Alexander  too  the  king  of  the 
Macedonians  and  the  king  of  kings  of  the  East  went  in 
some  measure  side  by  side,  and  to  him  too  the  bridal  bed 
in  Susa  was  the  reward  for  the  camp  tent  of  Gaugamela  ; 
but  the  Roman  copy  shows  in  its  exactness  a  strong  ele- 
ment of  caricature. 

Whether  Antonius  apprehended  his  position  in  this 
way,  immediately  on  his  taking  up  the  government  in  the 

^  The  decorum,  which  was  as  characteristic  of  Augustus  as  its 
opposite  was  of  his  colleague,  did  not  fail  him  here.  Not  merely  in 
the  case  of  Caesarion  was  the  paternity,  which  the  dictator  himself 
had  virtually  acknowledged,  afterwards  offically  denied;  the  chil- 
dren also  of  Antonius  by  Cleopatra,  where  indeed  nothing  was  to  be 
denied,  were  regarded  doubtless  as  members  of  the  imperial  house, 
but  were  never  formally  acknowledged  as  children  of  Antonius.  On 
the  contrary  the  son  of  the  daughter  of  Antonius  by  Cleopatra,  the 
subsequent  king  of  MauretaniaPtolemaeus,  is  called  in  the  Athenian 
inscription,  0.  Z  ^.  iii.  555,  grandson  of  Ptolemaeus;  for  UTo\e/j.a(ov 
€Kyovos  cannot  well  in  this  connection  be  taken  otherwise.  This 
maternal  grandfather  was  invented  in  Rome,  that  they  might  be 
able  officially  to  conceal  the  real  one.  Any  one  who  prefers— as  O. 
Hirschfeld  proposes— to  take  eKyovos  as  great-grandson,  and  to  refer 
it  to  the  maternal  great-grandfather,  comes  to  the  same  result ;  for 
then  the  grandfather  is  passed  over,  because  the  mother  was  in  the 
legal  sense  fatherless. — Whether  the  fiction,  which  is  in  my  view 
more  probable,  went  so  far  as  to  indicate  a  definite  Ptolemaeus,  pos- 
sibly to  prolong  the  life  of  the  last  Lagid  who  died  in 
712,  or  whether  they  were  content  with  inventing  a 
father  without  entering  into  particulars,  cannot  be  decided.  But 
the  fiction  was  adhered  to  in  this  respect,  that  the  son  of  Antonius's 
daughter  obtained  the  name  of  the  fictitious  grandfather.  The  cir- 
cumstance that  in  this  case  preference  was  given  to  the  descent  from 
the  Lagids  over  that  from  Massinissa  may  probably  have  been  occa- 
sioned more  by  regard  to  the  imperial  house,  which  treated  the  ille- 
gitimate child  as  belonging  to  it,  than  by  the  Hellenic  inclination 
of  the  father. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


29 


East,  cannot  be  decided  ;  it  may  be  conjectured  that  the 
creation  of  a  new  Oriental  great-kingdom  in 
£7thrpa?-'^     connection  with   the   Occidental  principate 
mian  war.       ripened  in  his  mind  gradually,  and  that  the  idea 
was  only  thought  out  completely,  after,  in  the 
year  717,  on  his  return  from  Italy  to  Asia,  he 
had  once  more  entered  into  relations  with  the  last  queen 
of  the  Lagid  house  not  to  be  again  broken  off.    But  his 
temperament  was  not  equal  to  such  an  enterprise.  One 
of  those  men  of  military  capacity,  who  knew  how,  in  pres- 
ence of  the  enemy,  and  especially  in  a  position  of  difficulty, 
to  strike  prudently  and  boldly,  he  lacked  the  will  of  the 
statesman,  the  sure  grasp  and  resolute  pursuit  of  a  politi- 
cal aim.    Had  the  dictator  Caesar  assigned  to  him  the 
problem  of  subduing  the  East,  he  would  probably  have 
solved  it :  the  marshal  was  not  fitted  to  be  the  ruler. 
After  the  expulsion  of  the  Parthians  from  Syria,  almost 
two  years  (summer  of  716  to  summer  of  718) 
'    ■  elapsed  without  any  step  being  taken  towards 

the  object  aimed  at.  Antonius  himself,  inferior  also  in 
this  respect  that  he  grudged  to  his  generals  important 
successes,  had  removed  the  conqueror  of  Labienus  and 
of  Pacorus,  the  able  Ventidius,  immediately  after  this  last 
success,  and  taken  the  chief  command  in  person  in  order 
to  pursue  and  to  miss  the  pitiful  honour  of  occupying 
Samosata,  the  capital  of  the  small  Syrian  dependent  state, 
Commagene  ;  annoyed  at  this  he  left  the  East,  in  order  to 
negotiate  in  Italy  with  his  father-in-law  as  to  the  future 
arrangements,  or  to  enjoy  life  with  his  young  spouse 
Octavia.  His  governors  in  the  East  were  not  inactive. 
Publius  Canidius  Crassus  advanced  from  Armenia  towards 
the  Caucasus,  and  there  subdued  Pharnabazus  king  of  the 
Iberians,  and  Zober  king  of  the  Albanians.  Gains  Sos- 
sius  took  in  Syria  the  last  town  still  adhering  to  the  Par- 
thians, Aradus  ;  he  further  re-established  in  Judaea  the 
rule  of  Herodes,  and  caused  the  pretender  to  the  throne 
installed  by  the  Parthians,  the  Hasmonean  Antigonus,  to 
be  put  to  death.    The  consequences  of  the  victory  on 


30 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


Eoman  territory  were  thus  duly  drawn,  and  the  recog- 
nition of  Eoman  rule  was  enforced  as  far  as  the  Caspian 
Sea  and  the  Syrian  desert.  But  Antonius  had  reserved 
for  himself  the  beginning  of  the  warfare  against  the  Par- 
thians,  and  he  came  not. 

When  at  length,  in  718,  he  escaped  from  the  arms,  not 
of  Octavia,  but  of  Cleopatra,  and  set  the  col- 
Parthian  war  of  UmnS  of  the  army  in  motion,  a  good  part  of 
Antonius.  appropriate  season  of  the  year  had  already 

elapsed.  Still  more  surprising  than  this  delay  was  the 
direction  which  Antonius  chose.  All  aggressive  wars  of 
the  Romans  against  the  Parthians,  earlier  and  later,  took 
the  route  for  Ctesiphon,  the  capital  of  the  kingdom  and  at 
the  same  time  situated  on  its  western  frontier,  and  so  the 
natural  and  immediate  aim  of  opei'ation  for  armies  march- 
ing downward  on  the  Euphrates  or  on  the  Tigris.  Anto- 
nius too  might,  after  he  had  reached  the  Tigris  through 
northern  Mesopotamia,  nearly  along  the  route  which  Alex- 
ander had  traversed,  have  advanced  down  the  river  upon 
Ctesiphon  and  Seleucia.  But  instead  of  this  he  preferred 
to  go  in  a  northerly  direction  at  first  towards  Armenia, 
and  from  that  point,  where  he  united  his  whole  military 
resources  and  reinforced  himself  in  particular  by  the  Ar- 
menian cavalry,  to  the  table-land  of  Media  Atropatene 
(Aderbijan).  The  allied  king  of  Armenia  may  possibly 
have  recommended  this  plan  of  campaign,  seeing  that  the 
Armenian  rulers  at  all  times  aspired  to  the  possession  of 
this  neighbouring  land,  and  King  Artavazdes  of  Armenia 
might  hope  now  to  subdue  the  satrap  of  Atropatene  of  the 
same  name,  and  to  add  the  latter's  territory  to  his  own. 
But  Antonius  himself  cannot  possibly  have  been  influenced 
by  such  considerations.  He  may  have  rather  thought  that 
he  should  be  able  to  push  forward  from  Atropatene  into 
the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country,  and  might  regard  the  old 
Persian  court-residences  of  Ecbatana  and  Rhagae  as  the 
goal  of  his  march.  But,  if  this  was  his  plan,  he  acted 
without  knowledge  of  the  difficult  ground,  and  altogether 
underrated  his  opponents'  power  of  resistance,  besides 


Chap.  IX.]        The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


31 


which  the  short  time  available  for  operations  in  this  moun- 
tainous country  and  the  late  beginning  of  the  campaign 
weighed  heavily  in  the  scale.  As  a  skilled  and  experi- 
enced officer,  such  as  Antonius  was,  could  hardly  deceive 
himself  on  such  points,  it  is  probable  that  special  political 
considerations  influenced  the  matter.  The  rule  of  Phraates 
was  tottering,  as  we  have  said  ;  Monaeses,  of  whose  fidelity 
Antonius  held  himself  assured,  and  whom  he  hoped  per- 
haps to  put  into  Phraates's  place,  had  returned  in  accord- 
ance with  the  wish  of  the  Parthian  king  to  his  native 
country  ;  '  Antonius  appears  to  have  reckoned  on  a  rising 
on  his  part  against  Phraates,  and  in  expectation  of  this 
civil  war  to  have  led  his  army  into  the  interior  of  the  Par- 
thian provinces.  It  would  doubtless  have  been  possible  to 
await  the  result  of  this  proposal  in  the  friendly  Armenia, 
and,  if  operations  thereafter  were  requisite,  to  have  at 
least  the  full  summer-time  at  his  disposal  in  the  following 
year  ;  but  this  waiting  was  not  agreeable  to  the  hasty  gen- 
eral. In  Atropatene  he  encountered  the  obstinate  resist- 
ance of  the  powerful  and  half  independent  under-king, 
who  resolutely  sustained  a  siege  in  his  capital  Praaspa  or 
Phraarta  (southward  from  the  lake  of  Urumia,  presumably 
on  the  lower  course  of  the  Jaghatu)  ;  and  not  only  so,  but 
the  hostile  attack  brought,  as  it  would  seem,  to  the  Par- 
thians  internal  peace.  Phraates  led  on  a  large  army  to 
the  relief  of  the  assailed  city.  Antonius  had  brought  with 
him  a  great  siege-train,  but  impatiently  hastening  forward, 
he  had  left  this  behind  in  the  custody  of  two  legions  under 
the  legate  Oppius  Statianus.  Thus  he  on  his  part  made 
no  progress  with  the  siege  ;  but  king  Phraates  sent  his 
masses  of  cavalry  under  that  same  Monaeses  to  the  rear  of 

^  It  is  in  itself  credible  tliat  Antonius  concealed  the  impending  in- 
vasion from  Phraates  as  long  as  possible,  and  therefore,  when  send- 
ing back  Monaeses,  declared  himself  ready  to  conclude  peace  on  the 
basis  of  the  restitution  of  the  lost  standards  (Plutarch,  37  ;  Dio, 
xlix.  24  ;  Florus,  ii.  20  [iv.  10]).  But  he  knew  presumably  that 
this  offer  would  not  be  accepted,  and  in  no  case  can  he  have  been  in 
earnest  with  those  proposals  ;  beyond  doubt  he  wished  for  the  war 
and  the  overthrow  of  Phraates. 


32 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIIL 


the  enemy,  against  the  corps  of  Statianus  laboriously  pur- 
suing its  march.  The  Parthians  cut  down  the  covering 
force,  including  the  general  himself,  took  the  rest  prison- 
ers, and  destroyed  the  whole  train  of  300  waggons.  There- 
by the  campaign  was  lost. 

The  Armenian,  despairing  of  the  success  of  the  cam- 
paign, collected  his  men  and  went  home.  An- 
SrufJS  tonius  did  not  immediately  abandon  the  siege, 
and  even  defeated  the  royal  army  in  the  open 
field,  but  the  alert  horsemen  escaped  without  substantial 
loss,  and  it  was  a  victory  without  effect.  An  attempt  to 
obtain  from  the  king  at  least  the  restitution  of  the  old  and 
the  newly  lost  eagles,  and  thus  to  conclude  peace,  if  not 
with  advantage,  at  least  with  honour,  failed  ;  the  Parthian 
did  not  give  away  his  sure  success  so  cheaply.  He  only 
assured  the  envoys  of  Antonius  that,  if  the  Romans  would 
give  up  the  siege,  he  would  not  molest  them  on  their  re- 
turn home.  This  neither  honourable  nor  trustworthy 
promise  of  the  enemy  would  hardly  have  induced  An- 
tonius to  break  up.  It  was  natural  to  take  up  quarters 
for  the  winter  in  the  enemy's  country,  seeing  that  the 
Parthian  troops  were  not  acquainted  with  continuous 
military  service,  and  presumably  most  of  their  forces 
would  have  gone  home  at  the  commencement  of  winter. 
But  a  strong  basis  was  lacking,  and  supplies  in  the  ex- 
hausted land  were  not  secured  ;  above  all  Antonius  him- 
self was  not  capable  of  such  a  tenacious  conduct  of  the 
war.  Consequently  he  abandoned  the  machines,  which 
the  besieged  immediately  burnt ;  and  entered  on  the  diffi- 
cult retreat,  either  too  early  or  too  late.  Fifteen  days' 
march  (300  Roman  miles)  through  a  hostile  country  sepa- 
rated the  army  from  the  Araxes,  the  border  river  of  Ar- 
menia, whither  in  spite  of  the  ambiguous  attitude  of  the 
ruler  the  retreat  could  alone  be  directed.  A  hostile  army 
of  40,000  horsemen,  in  spite  of  the  given  promise,  accom- 
panied the  returning  force,  and,  with  the  marching  off  of 
the  Armenians,  the  Romans  had  lost  the  best  part  of  their 
cavalry.    Provisions  and  draught  animals  were  scarce,  and 


Chap.  IX.]         I^Jie  Euphrates  Frontier. 


33 


the  season  of  the  year  far  advanced.  But  in  the  perilous 
position  Antonius  recovered  his  energy  and  his  martial 
skill,  and  in  some  measure  also  his  good  fortune  in  war ; 
he  had  made  his  choice,  and  the  general  as  well  as  the 
troops  solved  the  task  in  a  commendable  way.  Had  they 
not  had  with  them  a  former  soldier  of  Crassus,  who,  hav- 
ing become  a  Parthian,  knew  most  accurately  every  step 
of  the  way,  and,  instead  of  conducting  them  back  through 
the  plain  by  which  they  had  come,  guided  them  by  moun- 
tain paths,  which  were  less  exposed  to  cavalry  attacks — 
apparently  over  the  mountains  about  Tabreez — the  army 
would  hardly  have  reached  its  goal ;  and  had  not  Monae- 
ses,  paying  off  in  his  way  his  debt  of  thanks  to  Antonius, 
informed  him  in  right  time  of  the  false  assurances  and  the 
cunning  proposals  of  his  countrymen,  the  Romans  would 
doubtless  have  fallen  into  one  of  the  ambushes  which  on 
several  occasions  were  laid  for  them. 

The  soldierly  nature  of  Antonius  was  often  brilliantly 

conspicuous  during  these  troublesome  days, 
Sie^Sreat.°^    in  his  dexterous  use  of  any  favourable  moment, 

in  his  sternness  towards  the  cowardly,  in  his 
power  over  the  minds  of  the  soldiers,  in  his  faithful  care 
for  the  wounded  and  the  sick.  Yet  the  rescue  was  almost 
a  miracle  ;  already  had  Antonius  instructed  a  faithful  at- 
tendant in  case  of  extremity  not  to  let  him  fall  alive  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Amidst  constant  attacks  of  the 
artful  enemy,  in  weather  of  wintry  cold,  soon  without  ad- 
equate food  and  often  without  water,  they  in  twenty-seven 
days  reached  the  protecting  frontier,  where  the  enemy 
desisted  from  following  them.  The  loss  was  enormous ; 
there  were  reckoned  up  in  those  twenty-seven  days  eight- 
een larger  engagements,  and  in  a  single  one  of  them  the 
Eomans  counted  3,000  dead  and  5,000  wounded.  It  was 
the  very  best  and  bravest  that  those  constant  assaults  on 
the  vanguard  and  on  the  flanks  swept  away.  The  whole 
baggage,  a  third  of  the  camp-followers,  a  fourth  of  the 
army,  20,000  foot  soldiers,  and  4,000  horsemen  had  per- 
ished in  this  Median  campaign,  in  great  part  not  through 

Vol.  II.— 3 


34 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


the  sword,  but  through  famine  and  disease.  Even  on  the 
Araxes  the  sufferings  of  the  unhappy  troops  were  not  yet 
at  an  end.  Artavazdes  received  them  as  a  friend,  and 
had  no  other  choice  ;  it  would  doubtless  have  been  pos- 
sible to  pass  the  winter  there.  But  the  impatience  of 
Antonius  did  not  tolerate  this ;  the  march  went  on,  and 
from  the  ever  increasing  inclemency  of  the  season  and  the 
state  of  health  of  the  soldiers,  this  last  section  of  the  ex- 
pedition from  the  Araxes  to  Antioch  cost,  although  no  en- 
emy hampered  it,  other  8,000  men.  No  doubt  this  cam- 
paign was  a  last  flash  of  what  was  brave  and  capable  in  the 
character  of  Antonius  ;  but  it  was  politically  his  overthrow 
all  the  more,  as  at  the  same  time  Caesar  by  the  successful 
termination  of  the  Sicilian  war  gained  the  dominion  in  the 
"West  and  the  confidence  of  Italy  for  the  present  and  all 
the  future. 

The  responsibility  for  the  miscarriage,  which  Antonius 
in  vain  attempted  to  deny,  was  thrown  by  him 
Antonius  in  the  On  the  dependent  kings  of  Cappadocia  and 
East.  Armenia,  and  on  the  latter  so  far  with  justice, 

as  his  premature  marching  off  from  Praaspa  had  mate- 
rially increased  the  dangers  and  the  losses  of  the  retreat. 
For  the  plan  of  the  campaign,  however,  it  was  not  he  who 
was  responsible,  but  Antonius  ;  and  the  failure  of  the 
hopes  placed  on  Monaeses,  the  disaster  of  Statianus,  the 
breaking  down  of  the  siege  of  Praaspa,  were  not  brought 
about  by  the  Armenian.  Antonius  did  not  abandon  the 
subjugation  of  the  East,  but  set  out  next  year 
(719)  once  more  from  Egypt.  The  circum- 
stances were  still  even  now  comparatively  favourable.  A 
friendly  alliance  v/as  formed  with  the  Median  king  Arta- 

'  The  account  of  the  matter  given  by  Strabo,  xi.  13,  4,  p.  524, 
evidently  after  the  description  of  this  war  compiled  by  Antonius's 
comrade  in  arms  Dellius,  and,  it  may  be  conjectured,  at  his  bidding 
(comp.  ib.  xi  18,  3  ;  Dio,  xlix.  39 \  is  a  very  sorry  attempt  to  jus- 
tify the  beaten  general.  If  Antonius  did  not  take  the  nearest  route 
to  Ctesiphon,  king  Artavazdes  cannot  be  brought  in  for  the  blame 
of  it  as  a  false  guide  ;  it  was  a  military,  and  doubtless  still  more  a 
political,  miscalculation  of  the  general  in  chief. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier,  35 


vazdes  ;  he  had  not  merely  fallen  into  variance  with  his 
Parthian  suzerain,  but  was  indignant  above  all  at  his  Ar- 
menian neighbour,  and,  considering  the  well-known  exas- 
peration of  Antonius  against  the  latter,  he  might  reckon 
on  finding  a  support  in  the  enemy  of  his  enemy.  Every- 
thing depended  on  the  firm  accord  of  the  two  possessors 
of  power — the  victory- crowned  master  of  the  West  and 
the  defeated  ruler  in  the  East ;  and,  on  the  news  that  An- 
tonius proposed  to  continue  the  war,  his  legitimate  wife, 
the  sister  of  Caesar,  resorted  from  Italy  to  the  East  to 
bring  up  to  him  new  forces,  and  to  strengthen  anew  his 
relations  to  her  and  to  her  brother.  If  Octavia  was  mag- 
nanimous enough  to  offer  the  hand  of  reconciliation  to  her 
husband  in  spite  of  his  relations  to  the  Egyptian  queen, 
Caesar  must — as  was  further  confirmed  by  the  commence- 
ment, which  just  then  took  place,  of  the  war  on  the  north- 
east frontier  of  Italy — have  been  still  ready  at  that  time  to 
maintain  the  subsisting  relation.  The  brother  and  sister 
subordinated  their  personal  interests  magnanimously  to 
those  of  the  commonwealth.  But  loudly  as  interest  and 
honour  called  for  the  acceptance  of  the  offered  hand,  An- 
tonius could  not  prevail  on  himself  to  break  off  the  relation 
with  the  Egyptian  queen  ;  he  sent  back  his  wife,  and  this 
was  at  the  same  time  a  rupture  with  her  brother,  and,  as 
we  may  add,  an  abandonment  of  the  idea  of  continuing 
the  war  against  the  Parthians.  Now,  ere  that  could  be 
thought  of,  the  question  of  mastery  between  Antonius  and 
Caesar  had  to  be  settled.  Antonius  accordingly  returned 
at  once  from  Syria  to  Egypt,  and  in  the  following  year 
undertook  nothing  further  towards  the  execution  of  his 
plans  of  Oriental  conquest ;  only  he  punished  those  to 
whom  he  assigned  the  blame  of  the  miscarriage.  He 
caused  Ariarathes  the  king  of  Cappadocia  to  be  executed,^ 
and  gave  the  kingdom  to  an  illegitimate  kinsman  of  his, 

^  The  fact  of  the  deposition  and  execution,  and  the  time,  are  at- 
tested by  Dio,  xlix.  32,  and  Valerius  Maximus,  ix.  15,  ext.  2  ;  the 
cause  or  the  pretext  must  have  been  connected  with  the  Armenian 
war. 


36 


The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


[Book  VIII. 


Archelaus.    The  like  fate  was  intended  for  the  Armenian. 

If  Antonius  in  720  appeared  in  Armenia,  as  he 
said,  for  the  continuance  of  the  war,  this  had 
simply  the  object  of  getting  into  his  power  the  person  of 
the  king,  who  had  refused  to  go  to  Egypt.  This  act  of  re- 
venge was  ignobly  executed  by  way  of  surprise,  and  was 
not  less  ignobly  celebrated  by  a  caricature  of  the  Capito- 
line  triumph  exhibited  in  Alexandria.  At  that  time  the 
son  of  Antonius,  destined  for  lord  of  the  East,  as  was  al- 
ready stated,  was  installed  as  king  of  Armenia,  and  mar- 
ried to  the  daughter  of  the  new  ally,  the  king  of  Media ; 
while  the  eldest  son  of  the  captive  king  of  Armenia  exe- 
cuted some  time  afterwards  by  order  of  queen  Cleopatra, 
Artaxes,  whom  the  Armenians  had  proclaimed  king  instead 
of  his  father,  took  refuge  with  the  Parthians.  Armenia 
and  Media  Atropatene  were  thus  in  the  power  of  Antonius 
or  allied  with  him  ;  the  continuance  of  the  Parthian  war 
was  announced  doubtless,  but  remained  postponed  till 
after  the  overcoming  of  the  western  rival.  Phraates  on  his 
part  advanced  against  Media,  at  first  without  success,  as 
the  Koman  troops  stationed  in  Armenia  afforded  help  to 
the  Medians  ;  but  when  Antonius,  in  the  course  of  his  ar- 
maments against  Caesar,  recalled  his  forces  from  that 
quarter,  the  Parthians  gained  the  upper  hand,  vanquished 
the  Medians,  and  installed  in  Media,  as  well  as  also  in  Ar- 
menia, the  king  Artaxes,  who,  in  requital  for  the  execu- 
tion of  his  father,  caused  all  the  Romans  scattered  in  the 
land  to  be  seized  and  put  to  death.  That  Phraates  did 
not  turn  to  fuller  account  the  great  feud  between  Antonius 
and  Caesar,  while  it  was  in  preparation  and  was  being 
fought  out,  was  probably  due  to  his  being  once  more 
hampered  by  the  troubles  breaking  out  in  his  own  land. 
These  ended  in  his  expulsion,  and  in  his  going  to  the 
Scythians  of  the  East.  Tiridates  was  proclaimed  as  great- 
king  in  his  stead.  When  the  decisive  naval  battle  was 
fought  on  the  coast  of  Epirus,  and  thereupon  the  overthrow 
of  Antonius  was  completed  in  Egypt,  this  new  great-king 
sat  on  his  tottering  throne  in  Ctesiphon,  and  at  the  oppo- 


Chap.  IX.  ]         The  Eii^phrates  Frontier. 


37 


site  frontier  of  the  empire  the  hordes  of  Turan  were  mak- 
ing arrangements  to  reinstate  the  earlier  ruler,  in  which 
they  soon  afterwards  succeeded. 

The  sagacious  and  clear-seeing  man,  to  whom  it  fell  to 
liquidate  the  undertakings  of  Antonius  and  to 
ments^orAugus-  scttlc  the  rclatious  of  the  two  portions  of  the 

tus  in  the  East.  .  -,  n  -i. 

empu'e,  needed  moderation  quite  as  much  as 
energy.  It  would  have  been  the  gravest  of  errors  to  enter 
into  the  ideas  of  Antonius  as  to  conquering  the  East,  or 
even  merely  making  further  conquests  there.  Augustus 
perceived  this ;  his  military  arrangements  show  clearly 
that,  while  he  viewed  the  possession  of  the  Syrian  coast  as 
well  as  that  of  Egypt  as  an  indispensable  complement  to 
the  empire  of  the  Mediterranean,  he  attached  no  value 
to  inland  possessions  there.  Armenia,  however,  had  now 
been  for  a  generation  Eoman,  and  could,  in  the  nature  of 
the  circumstances,  only  be  Eoman  or  Parthian  ;  the  coun- 
try was  by  its  position,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  a  sally- 
port for  each  of  the  great  powers  into  the  territory  of  the 
other.  Augustus  had  no  thought  of  abandoning  Armenia 
and  leaving  it  to  the  Parthian s  ;  and,  as  things  stood,  he 
could  hardly  think  of  doing  so.  But,  if  Armenia  was  re- 
tained, the  matter  could  not  end  there  ;  the  local  relations 
compelled  the  Komans  further  to  bring  under  their  con- 
trolling influence  the  basin  of  the  river  Cyrus,  the  terri- 
tories of  the  Iberians  on  its  upper,  and  of  the  Albanians 
on  its  lower  course — that  is,  the  inhabitants  of  the  modern 
Georgia  and  Shirvan,  skilled  in  combat  on  horseback  and 
on  foot — and  not  to  allow  the  domain  of  the  Parthian 
power  to  extend  to  the  north  of  the  Araxes  beyond  Atro- 
patene.  The  expedition  of  Pompeius  had  already  shown 
that  the  settlement  in  Armenia  necessarily  led  the  Eomans 
on  the  one  hand  as  far  as  the  Caucasus,  on  the  other  as 
far  as  the  western  shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  The  initial 
steps  were  everywhere  taken.  The  legates  of  Antonius  had 
fought  with  the  Iberians  and  Albanians  ;  Polemon,  con- 
firmed in  his  position  by  Augustus,  ruled  not  merely  over 
the  coast  from  Pharnacea  to  Trapezus,  but  also  over  the 


38 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


territory  of  the  Colchians  at  the  mouth  of  the  Phasis.  To 
this  general  state  of  matters  fell  to  be  added  the  special 
circumstances  of  the  moment,  which  most  urgently  sug- 
gested to  the  new  monarch  of  Kome  not  merely  to  show 
his  sword  in  presence  of  the  Orientals,  but  also  to  draw  it. 
That  king  Artaxes,  like  Mithradates  formerly,  had  given 
orders  to  put  to  death  all  the  Eomans  within  his  bounds, 
could  not  be  allowed  to  remain  unrequited.  The  exiled 
king  of  Media  also  had  now  sought  help  from  Augustus, 
as  he  would  otherwise  have  sought  it  from  Antonius.  Not 
merely  did  the  civil  war  and  the  conflict  of  pretenders  in 
the  Parthian  empire  facilitate  the  attack,  but  the  expelled 
ruler  Tiridates  likewise  sought  protection  with  Augustus, 
and  declared  himself  ready  as  a  Eoman  vassal  to  accept 
his  kingdom  in  fief  from  the  latter.  The  restitution  of 
the  Komans  who  had  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  Par- 
thians  at  the  defeats  of  Crassus  and  of  the  Antonians,  and 
of  the  lost  eagles,  might  not  in  themselves  seem  to  the 
ruler  worth  the  waging  of  war  ;  the  restorer  of  the  Roman 
state  could  not  allow  this  question  of  military  and  politi- 
cal honour  to  drop. 

The  Eoman  statesman  had  to  reckon  with  these  facts  ; 

considering  the  position,  which  Antonius  took 
him!'^  *°  in  the  East,  the  policy  of  action  was  impera- 
tive generally,  and  doubly  so  from  the  pre- 
ceding miscarriages.  Beyond  doubt  it  was  desirable  soon 
to  undertake  the  organisation  of  matters  in  Rome,  but  for 
the  undisputed  monarch  there  subsisted  no  stringent  com- 
pulsion to  do  this  at  once.  He  found  himself  after  the 
decisive  blows  of  Actium  and  Alexandria  on  the  spot  and 
at  the  head  of  a  strong  and  victorious  army  ;  what  had  to 
be  done  some  day  was  best  done  at  once.  A  ruler  of  the 
stamp  of  Caesar  would  hardly  have  returned  to  Rome 
without  having  restored  the  protectorate  in  Armenia,  hav- 
ing obtained  recognition  for  the  Roman  supremacy  as  far 
as  the  Caucasus  and  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  having  settled 
accounts  with  the  Parthians.  A  ruler  of  caution  and  en- 
ergy would  have  now  at  once  organised  the  defence  of  the 


Chap,  IX.]         TJie  Euphrates  Frontier. 


39 


frontier  in  the  East,  as  the  circumstances  required  ;  it  was 
from  the  outset  clear  that  the  four  Syrian  legions,  together 
about  40,000  men,  were  not  sufficient  to  guard  the  inter- 
ests of  Kome  simultaneously  on  the  Euphrates,  on  the 
Araxes,  and  on  the  Cyrus,  and  that  the  militia  of  the  de- 
pendent kingdoms  only  concealed,  and  did  not  cover,  the 
want  of  imperial  troops.  Armenia  by  political  and  national 
sympathy  held  more  to  the  Parthians  than  to  the  Romans  ; 
the  kings  of  Commagene,  Cappadocia,  Galatia,  Pontus, 
were  inclined  doubtless  on  the  other  hand  more  to  the 
Roman  side,  but  they  were  untrustworthy  and  weak.  Even 
a  policy  keeping  within  bounds  needed  for  its  foundation 
an  energetic  stroke  of  the  sword,  and  for  its  maintenance 
the  near  arm  of  a  superior  Roman  military  power. 

Augustus  neither  struck  nor  protected  ;  certainly  not 
because  he  deceived  himself  as  to  the  state  of 
meature?^  the  case,  but  bccausc  it  was  his  nature  to  exe- 
cute tardily  and  feebly  what  he  perceived  to 
be  necessary,  and  to  let  considerations  of  internal  policy 
exercise  a  more  than  due  influence  on  the  relations  abroad. 
The  inadequacy  of  the  protection  of  the  frontier  by  the  cli- 
ent-states of  Asia  Minor  he  well  perceived  ;  and  in  con- 
nection therewith,  already  in  the  j^ear  729,  after 
the  death  of  king  Amyntas  who  ruled  all  the  in- 
terior of  Asia  Minor,  he  gave  to  him  no  successor,  but  placed 
the  land  under  an  imperial  legate.  Presumably  the  neigh- 
bouring more  impotant  client-states,  and  particularly  Cap- 
padocia, were  intended  to  be  in  like  manner  converted  after 
the  decease  of  the  holders  for  the  time  into  imperial  govern- 
orships. This  was  a  step  in  advance,  in  so  far  as  thereby  the 
militia  ot  these  countries  was  incorporated  with  the  impe- 
rial army  and  placed  under  Roman  officers  ;  these  troops 
could  not  exercise  a  serious  pressure  on  the  insecure  bor- 
derlands or  even  on  the  neighbouring  great-state,  although 
they  now  counted  among  those  of  the  empire.  But  all  these 
considerations  were  outweighed  by  regard  to  the  reduction 
of  the  numbers  of  the  standing  army  and  of  the  expendi- 
ture for  the  military  system  to  the  lowest  possible  measure. 


40 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


Equally  insufficient,  in  presence  of  the  relations  of  the 
moment,  were  the  measures  adopted  by  Augustus  on  his 
return  home  from  Alexandria.  He  gave  to  the  dispos- 
sessed king  of  the  Medes  the  rule  of  the  Lesser  Armenia, 
and  to  the  Parthian  pretender  Tiridates  an  asylum  in 
Syria,  in  order  through  the  former  to  keep  in  check  the 
king  Artaxes  who  persevered  in  open  hostility  against 
Kome,  by  the  latter  to  press  upon  king  Phraates.  The 
negotiations  instituted  with  the  latter  regarding  the  resti- 
tution of  the  Parthian  trophies  of  victory  were  prolonged 
without  result,  although  Phraates  in  the  year  731  had 
promised  their  return  in  order  to  obtain  the 

23.  ^ 

release  of  a  son  who  had  accidentally  fallen  into 
the  power  of  the  Eomans. 

It  was  only  when  Augustus  went  in  person  to  Syria  in 

the  year  734,  and  showed  himself  in  earnest, 
Augustus  in      that  the  Orientals  submitted.    In  Armenia, 

where  a  powerful  party  had  risen  against  king 
Artaxes,  the  insurgents  threw  themselves  into  the  arms  of 
the  Eomans  and  sought  imperial  investiture  for  Artaxes's 
younger  brother  Tigranes,  brought  up  at  the  imperial 
court  and  living  in  Eome.  When  the  emperor's  stepson 
Tiberius  Claudius  Nero,  then  a  youth  of  twenty-two  years, 
advanced  with  a  military  force  into  Armenia,  king  Artaxes 
was  put  to  death  by  his  own  relatives,  and  Tigranes  re- 
ceived the  imperial  tiara  from  the  hand  of  the  emperor's 
representative,  as  fifty  years  earlier  his  grandfather  of 
the  same  name  had  received  it  from  Pompeius  (iv.  152). 
Atropatene  was  again  separated  from  Armenia  and  passed 
under  the  sway  of  a  ruler  likewise  brought  up  in  Eome, 
Ariobarzanes,  son  of  the  already-mentioned  Artavazdes ; 
yet  the  latter  appears  to  have  obtained  the  land  not  as  a 
Eoman  but  as  a  Parthian  dependency.  Concerning  the 
organisation  of  matters  in  the  principalities  on  the  Cau- 
casus we  learn  nothing ;  but  as  they  are  subsequently 
reckoned  among  the  Eoman  client-states,  probably  at 
that  time  the  Eoman  influence  prevailed  here  also.  Even 
king  Phraates,  now  put  to  the  choice  of  redeeming  his 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


41 


word  or  fighting,  resolved  with  a  heavy  heart  on  the  sur- 
render— keenly  as  it  did  violence  to  the  national  feelings 
of  his  people — of  the  few  Koman  prisoners  of  war  still 
living  and  the  standards  won. 

Boundless  joy  saluted  this  bloodless  victory  achieved 
.     ^       by  this  prince  of  peace.    After  it  there  sub- 

Mission  of  -•-  ^ 

Gaius  Caesar     sistcd  for  a  Considerable  time  a  friendly  re- 

to  the  East.  . 

lation  with  the  king  of  the  Parthians,  as  indeed 
the  immediate  interests  of  the  two  great  states  came  little 
into  contact.  In  Armenia,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Koman 
vassal-rule,  which  rested  only  on  its  own  basis,  had  a  dif- 
ficulty in  confronting  the  national  opposition.  After  the 
early  death  of  king  Tigranes  his  children,  or  the  leaders 
of  the  state  governing  under  their  name,  joined  this  op- 
position. Against  them  another  ruler  Artavazdes  was  set 
up  by  the  friends  of  the  Komans  ;  but  he  was  unable  to 
prevail  against  the  stronger  opposing  party.  These  Arme- 
nian troubles  disturbed  also  the  relation  to  the  Parthians  ; 
it  was  natural  that  the  Armenians  antagonistic  to  Rome 
should  seek  to  lean  on  these,  and  the  Arsacids  could  not 
forget  that  Armenia  had  been  formerly  a  Parthian  appan- 
age for  the  second  son.  Bloodless  victories  are  often 
feeble  and  dangerous.  Matters  went  so  far  that  the 
g  Boman  government,  in  the  year  748,  commis- 

sioned the  same  Tiberius,  who,  fourteen  years 
before  had  installed  Tigranes  as  vassal-king  of  Armenia,  to 
enter  it  once  more  with  a  military  force  and  to  regulate  the 
state  of  matters  in  case  of  need  by  arms.  But  the  quarrels 
in  the  imperial  family,  which  had  interrupted  the  subjuga- 
tion of  the  Germans  (i.  40),  interfered  also  here  and  had 
the  same  bad  effect.  Tiberius  declined  his  stepfather's 
commission,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  suitable  princely  gen- 
eral the  Roman  government  for  some  years  looked  on, 
inactive  for  good  or  evil,  at  the  doings  of  the  anti-Roman 
party  in  Armenia  under  Parthian  protection. 
At  length,  in  the  year  753,  not  merely  was  the 
same  commission  given  to  the  elder  adopted  son  of  the  em- 
peror, Gaius  Caesar,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  but  the  subjuga- 


42 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


tioii  of  Armenia  was  to  be,  as  the  father  hoped,  the  be- 
ginning of  greater  things ;  the  Oriental  campaign  of  the 
crown-prinee  of  twenty  was,  we  might  almost  say,  to  con- 
tinue the  expedition  of  Alexander.  Literati  commissioned 
by  the  emperor  or  in  close  relations  to  the  court,  the  geog- 
rapher Isidorus,  himself  at  home  at  the  mouth  of  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  king  Juba  of  Mauretania,  the  representa- 
tive of  Greek  learning  among  the  princely  personages  of 
the  Augustan  circle,  dedicated — the  former  his  informa- 
tion personally  acquired  in  the  East,  the  latter  his  literary 
collections  on  Arabia — to  the  young  prince,  who  appeared 
to  burn  with  the  desire  of  achieving  the  conquest  of  that 
land— over  which  Alexander  had  met  his  death — as  a 
brilliant  compensation  for  a  miscarriage  of  the  Augustan 
government  which  a  considerable  time  ago  had  there 
occurred.  In  the  first  instance  for  Armenia  this  mission 
was  just  as  successful  as  that  of  Tiberius.  The  Eoman 
crown-prince  and  the  Parthian  great-king  Phraataces  met 
personally  on  an  island  of  the  Euphrates ;  the  Parthians 
once  more  gave  up  Armenia,  the  imminent  danger  of  a 
Parthian  war  was  averted,  and  the  understanding,  which 
had  been  disturbed,  was  at  least  outwardly  re-established. 
Gains  appointed  Ariobarzanes,  a  prince  of  the  Median 
princely  house,  as  king  over  the  Armenians,  and  the  su- 
zerainty of  Rome  was  once  more  confirmed.  The  Arme- 
nians, however,  opposed  to  Rome  did  not  submit  without 
resistance  ;  matters  came  not  merely  to  the  marching  in 
of  the  legions,  but  even  to  fighting.  Before  the  walls  of 
the  Armenian  stronghold  Artageira  the  young  crown- 
prince  received  from  a  Parthian  officer  through  treachery 
the  wound  (2  a.d.)  of  which  he  died  after  months  of  sick- 
ness. The  intermixture  of  imperial  and  dynastic  policy 
punished  itself  anew.  The  death  of  a  young  man  changed 
the  course  of  great  policy  ;  the  Arabian  expedition  so 
confidently  announced  to  the  public  fell  into  abeyance, 
after  its  success  could  no  longer  smooth  the  way  of  the 
emperor's  son  to  the  succession.  Further  undertakings 
on  the  EujDhrates  were  no  longer  thought  of ;  the  im- 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Eujplirates  Frontier. 


43 


mediate  object — the  occupation  of  Armenia  and  the  re- 
estabHshment  of  the  relations  with  the  Parthians — was  at- 
tained, however  sad  the  shadows  that  fell  on  this  success 
through  the  death  of  the  crown-prince. 

The  success  had  no  more  endurance  than  that  of  the 

more  brilliant  expedition  of  734.  The  rulers 
^.  .  ^  ^  of  Armenia  installed  by  Eome  were  soon  hard, 
manicus  to  the   pressed  by  those  of  the  counter-party  with  the 

secret  or  open  participation  of  the  Parthians, 
and  supplanted.  When  the  Parthian  prince  Vonones, 
reared  in  Rome,  was  called  to  the  vacant  Parthian  throne, 
the  Romans  hoped  to  find  in  him  a  support ;  but  on  that 
very  account  he  had  soon  to  vacate  it,  and  in  his  stead 
came  king  Artabanus  of  Media,  an  energetic  man,  sprung 
on  the  mother's  side  from  the  Arsacids,  but  belonging  to 
the  Scythian  people  of  the  Daci,  and  brought  up  in  native 
habits  (about  10  a.d.).  Vonones  was  then  received  by  the 
Armenians  as  ruler,  and  thereby  these  were  kept  under 
Roman  influence.  But  the  less  could  Artabanus  tolerate 
his  dispossessed  rival  as  a  neighbour  prince  ;  the  Roman 
government  must,  in  order  to  sustain  a  man  in  every 
respect  unfitted  for  his  position,  have  applied  armed  force 
against  the  Parthians  as  against  his  own  subjects.  Ti- 
berius, who  meanwhile  had  come  to  reign,  did  not  order 
an  immediate  invasion,  and  for  the  moment  the  anti- 
Roman  party  in  Armenia  was  victorious  ;  but  it  was  not 
his  intention  to  abandon  the  important  border-land.  On 
the  contrary,  the  annexation,  probably  long  resolved  on, 
of  the  kingdom  of  Cappadocia  was  carried  out  in  the  year 
17  ;  the  old  Archelaus,  who  had  occupied  the  throne  there 

from  the  year  718,  was  summoned  to  Rome 

and  was  there  informed  that  he  had  ceased  to 
reign.  Likewise  the  petty,  but  on  account  of  the  fords  of 
the  Euphrates  important,  kingdom  of  Commagene  came 
at  that  time  under  immediate  imperial  administration. 
Thereby  the  direct  frontier  of  the  empire  was  pushed  for- 
ward as  far  as  the  middle  Euphrates.  At  the  same  time 
the  crown-prince  Germanicus,  who  had  just  commanded 


44 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


with  great  distinction  on  the  Rhine,  went  with  extended 
full  powers  to  the  East,  in  order  to  organise  the  new 
province  of  Cappadocia  and  to  restore  the  sunken  repute 
of  the  imperial  authority. 

This  mission  also  attained  its  end  soon  and  easily. 

Germanicus,  althouf^h  not  supported  by  the 

And  its  results.  -P  a     •  -D-  -lx. 

governor  oi  byria,  Gnaeus  Jriso,  with  such  a 
force  of  troops  as  he  was  entitled  to  ask  and  had  asked, 
went  nevertheless  to  Armenia,  and  by  the  mere  weight  of 
his  person  and  of  his  position  brought  back  the  land  to 
allegiance.  He  allowed  the  incapable  Vonones  to  fall,  and, 
in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  chief  men  favourable 
to  Rome,  appointed  as  ruler  of  the  Armenians  a  son  of 
that  Polemon  whom  Antonius  had  made  king  in  Pontus, 
Zeno,  or,  as  he  was  called  as  king  of  Armenia,  Artax- 
ias ;  the  latter  was,  on  the  one  hand,  connected  with  the 
imperial  house  through  his  mother  queen  Pythodoris, 
a  granddaughter  of  the  triumvir  Antonius,  on  the  other 
hand,  reared  after  the  manner  of  the  country,  a  vigorous 
huntsman  and  a  brave  carouser  at  the  festal  board.  The 
great-king  Artabanus  also  met  the  Roman  prince  in  a 
friendly  way,  and  asked  only  for  the  removal  of  his  pre- 
decessor Vonones  from  Syria,  in  order  to  check  the  in- 
trigues concocted  between  him  and  the  discontented  Par- 
thians.  As  Germanicus  responded  to  this  request  and 
sent  the  inconvenient  refugee  to  Cilicia,  where  he  soon 
afterwards  perished  in  an  attempt  to  escape,  the  best 
relations  were  established  between  the  two  great  states. 
Artabanus  wished  even  to  meet  personally  with  Ger- 
manicus at  the  Euphrates,  as  Phraataces  and  Gains  had 
done ;  but  this  Germanicus  declined,  doubtless  with  ref- 
erence to  the  easily  excited  suspicion  of  Tiberius.  In 
truth  the  same  shadow  of  gloom  fell  on  this  Oriental 
expedition  as  on  the  last  preceding  one;  from  this  too 
the  crown-prince  of  the  Roman  empire  came  not  home 
alive. 

For  a  time  the  arrangements  made  did  their  work. 
So  long  as  Tiberius  bore  sway  with  a  firm  hand,  and  so 


Chap.  IX.]        The  Ewphrates  Frontier, 


45 


long  as  king  Artaxias  of  Armenia  lived,  tranquillity  con- 
tinued in  the  East ;  but  in  ttie  last  years  of 
^berfuT'  "^"^  old  emperor,  when  he  from  his  solitary  isl- 
and allowed  things  to  take  their  course  and 
shrank  back  from  all  interference,  and  especially  after  the 
death  of  Artaxias  (about  34),  the  old  game  once  more 
began.  King  Artabanus,  exalted  by  his  long  and  pros- 
perous government  and  by  many  successes  achieved 
against  the  border  peoples  of  L-an,  and  convinced  that 
the  old  emperor  would  have  no  inclination  to  begin  a 
heavy  war  in  the  East,  induced  the  Armenians  to  proclaim 
his  own  eldest  son,  Arsaces,  as  ruler ;  that  is,  to  exchange 
the  Koman  suzerainty  for  the  Parthian,  Indeed  he  seemed 
directly  to  aim  at  war  with  Kome  ;  he  demanded  the  estate 
left  by  his  predecessor  and  rival  Vonones,  who  had  died  in 
Cilicia,  from  the  Eoman  government,  and  his  letters  to  it 
as  undisguisedly  expressed  the  view  that  the  East  belonged 
to  the  Orientals,  as  they  called  by  the  right  name  the 
abominations  at  the  imperial  court,  of  which  people  in 
Kome  ventured  only  to  whisper  in  their  most  intimate 
circles.  He  is  said  even  to  have  made  an  attempt  to 
possess  himself  of  Cappadocia.  But  he  had  miscalculated 
on  the  old  lion.  Tiberius  was  even  at  Capreae  formidable 
not  merely  to  his  courtiers,  and  was  not  the  man  to  let 
liimseK,  and  in  himself  Kome,  be  mocked 
viteiiius^^  with  impunity.  He  sent  Lucius  Vitellius,  the 
father  of  the  subsequent  emperor,  a  resolute 
officer  and  skilful  diplomatist,  to  the  East  with  plenary 
power  similar  to  that  which  Gains  Caesar  and  Germanicus 
had  formerly  had,  and  with  the  commission  in  case  of  need 
to  lead  the  Syrian  legions  over  the  Euphrates.  At  the 
same  time  he  applied  the  often  tried  means  for  giving 
trouble  to  the  rulers  of  the  East  by  insurrections  and  pre- 
tenders in  their  own  land.  To  the  Parthian  prince,  whom 
the  Armenian  nationalists  had  proclaimed  as  ruler,  he  op- 
posed a  prince  of  the  royal  house  of  the  Iberians,  Mith- 
radates,  brother  of  the  Armenian  king  Pharasmanes,  and 
directed  the  latter,  as  well  as  the  prince  of  the  Albanians, 


46 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIIL 


to  support  the  Eoman  pretender  to  Armenia  with  military 
force.  Large  bands  of  the  Transcaucasian  Sarmatae,  war- 
like and  easy  of  access  to  every  wooer,  were  hired  with 
Koman  money  for  the  inroads  into  Armenia.  The  Eoman 
pretender  succeeded  in  poisoning  his  rival  through  bribed 
courtiers,  and  in  possessing  himself  of  the  country  and 
of  the  capital  Artaxata.  Artabanus  sent  in  place  of  the 
murdered  prince  another  son  Orodes  to  Armenia,  and 
attempted  also  on  his  part  to  procure  Transcaucasian 
auxiliaries ;  but  only  few  made  good  their  way  to  Armenia, 
and  the  bands  of  Parthian  horsemen  were  not  a  match  for 
the  good  infantry  of  the  Caucasian  peoples  and  the  dreaded 
Sarmatian  mounted  archers.  Orodes  was  vanquished  in  a 
hard  pitched  battle,  and  himself  severely  wounded  in  single 
combat  with  his  rival.  Then  Artabanus  in  person  set  out 
for  Armenia.  But  now  Vitellius  also  put  in  motion  the 
Syrian  legions,  in  order  to  cross  the  Euphrates  and  to  in- 
vade Mesopotamia,  and  this  brought  the  long  fermenting 
insurrection  in  the  Parthian  kingdom  to  an  outbreak. 
The  energetic  and,  with  successes,  more  and  more  rude 
demeanour  of  the  Scythian  ruler,  had  offended  many  per- 
sons and  interests,  and  had  especially  estranged  from  him 
the  Mesopotamian  Greeks  and  the  powerful  urban  com- 
munity of  Seleucia,  from  which  he  had  taken  away  its 
municipal  constitution,  democratic  after  a  Greek  type. 
Eoman  gold  fostered  the  movement  which  was  in  prepara- 
tion. Discontented  nobles  had  already  put  themselves  in 
communication  with  the  Eoman  government,  and  besought 
from  it  a  genuine  Arsacid.  Tiberius  had  sent  the  only  sur- 
viving son  of  Phraates,  of  the  same  name  with  his  father, 
and — after  the  old  man,  accustomed  to  Eoman  habits,  had 
succumbed  to  his  exertions  while  still  in  Syria — in  his 
stead  a  grandson  of  Phraates,  likewise  living  in  Eome,  by 
name  Tiridates.  The  Parthian  prince  Sinnaces,  the  leader 
of  these  plots,  now  renounced  allegiance  to  the  Scythians 
and  set  up  the  banner  of  the  Arsacids.  Vitellius  with  his 
legions  crossed  the  Euphrates,  and  in  his  train  the  new 
great-king  by  grace  of  Eome.    The  Parthian  governor  of 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


47 


Mesopotamia,  Ornospades,  wlio  had  once  as  an  exile  shared 
under  Tiberius  in  the  Pannonian  wars,  placed  himself  and 
his  troops  at  once  at  the  disposal  of  the  new  ruler ;  Abda- 
gaeses,  the  father  of  Sinnaces,  delivered  over  the  imperial 
treasure  ;  very  speedily  Artabanus  found  himself  aban- 
doned by  the  whole  country,  and  compelled  to  take  flight 
to  his  Scythian  home,  where  he  wandered  about  in  the 
forests  without  settled  abode,  and  kept  himself  alive  with 
his  bow,  while  the  tiara  was  solemnly  placed  on  the  head 
of  Tiridates  in  Ctesiphon  by  the  princes  who  were,  ac- 
cording to  the  Parthian  constitution,  called  to  crown  the 
ruler. 

But  the  rule  of  the  new  great-king  sent  by  the  imperial 
foe  did  not  last  long.  The  government,  con- 
Spirseded.  ducted  less  by  himself,  young,  inexperienced, 
and  incapable,  than  by  those  who  had  made 
him  king,  and  chiefly  by  Abdagaeses,  soon  provoked 
opposition.  Some  of  the  chief  satraps  had  remained 
absent  even  from  the  coronation  festival,  and  again 
brought  forth  the  dispossessed  ruler  from  his  banish- 
ment ;  with  their  assistance  and  the  forces  supplied  by 
his  Scythian  countrymen  Artabanus  returned,  and  already 
in  the  following  year  (36)  the  whole  kingdom,  with  the 
exception  of  Seleucia,  was  again  in  his  power,  Tiridates 
was  a  fugitive,  and  was  compelled  to  demand  from  his 
Roman  protectors  the  shelter  which  could  not  be  re- 
fused to  him.  Vitellius  once  more  led  the  legions  to  the 
Euphrates  ;  but,  as  the  great-king  appeared  in  person  and 
declared  himself  ready  for  all  that  was  asked,  provided 
that  the  Roman  government  would  stand  aloof  from  Tiri- 
dates, peace  was  soon  concluded.  Artabanus  not  merely 
recognized  Mithradates  as  king  of  Armenia,  but  presented 
also  to  the  ef&gy  of  the  Roman  emperor  the  homage  which 
was  wont  to  be  required  of  vassals,  and  furnished  his  son 
Darius  as  a  hostage  to  the  Romans.  Thereupon  the  old 
emperor  died  ;  but  he  had  lived  long  enough  to  see  this 
victory,  as  bloodless  as  complete,  of  his  policy  over  the 
revolt  of  the  East. 


48 


The  Eujplirates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


What  the  sagacity  of  the  old  man  had  attained  was  un- 
done at  once  by  the  indiscretion  of  his  suc- 
Safu?'*  cessor.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  he  cancelled 
judicious  arrangements  of  Tiberius,  re-estab- 
lishing, e.g.  the  annexed  kingdom  of  Commagene,  his 
foolish  envy  grudged  the  dead  emperor  the  success  which 
he  had  gained  ;  he  summoned  the  able  governor  of  Syria 
as  well  as  the  new  king  of  Armenia  to  Eome  to  answer  for 
themselves,  deposed  the  latter,  and,  after  keeping  him  for 
a  time  a  prisoner,  sent  him  into  exile.  As  a  matter  of 
course  the  Parthian  government  took  action  for  itself, 
and  once  more  seized  possession  of  Armenia  which  was 
without  a  master.^  Claudius,  on  coming  to  reign  in  the 
year  41,  had  to  begin  afresh  the  work  that  had  been  done. 
He  dealt  with  it  after  the  example  of  Tiberius.  Mithra- 
dates,  recalled  from  exile,  was  reinstated,  and  directed 
with  the  help  of  his  brother  to  possess  himself  of  Armenia. 
The  fraternal  war  then  waged  among  the  three  sons  of 
king  Artabanus  III.  in  the  Parthian  kingdom  smoothed 
the  way  for  the  Romans.  After  the  murder  of  the  eldest 
son,  Gotarzes  and  Vardanes  contended  over  the  throne  for 
years ;  Seleucia,  which  had  already  renounced  allegiance 
to  the  father,  defied  him  and  subsequently  his  sons 
throughout  seven  years ;  the  peoples  of  Turan  also  in- 
terfered, as  they  always  did,  in  this  quarrel  of  princes 
of  Iran.  Mithradates  was  able,  with  the  help  of  the 
troops  of  his  brother  and  of  the  garrisons  of  the  neigh- 
bouring Roman  provinces,  to  overpower  the  Parthian  par- 
tisans in  Armenia  and  to  make  himself  again  master 

^  The  account  of  the  seizure  of  Armenia  is  wanting,  but  the  fact 
is  clearly  apparent  from  Tacitus,  Ann.  xi.  9.  To  this  connection 
probably  belongs  what  Josephus,  Arch.  xx.  3,  3,  tells  of  the  de- 
sign of  the  successor  of  Artabanus  to  wage  war  against  the  Ro- 
mans, from  which  Izates  the  satrap  of  Adiabene  vainly  dissuades 
him.  Josephus  names  this  successor,  probably  in  error,  Bardanes. 
The  immediate  successor  of  Artabanus  III.  was,  according  to  Taci- 
tus, Ann.  xi.  8,  his  son  of  the  same  name,  whom  along  with  his 
son  thereupon  Gotarzes  put  out  of  the  way  ;  and  this  Artabanus  IV. 
must  be  here  meant. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


49 


there  ;  ^  the  land  obtained  a  Koman  garrison.  After  Var- 
danes  had  come  to  terms  with  his  brother  and  had  at  leogth 
reoccupied  Seleucia,  he  seemed  as  though  he  would  march 
into  Armenia ;  but  the  threatening  attitude  of  the  Eoman 
legate  of  Syria  withheld  him,  and  very  soon  the  brother 
broke  the  agreement  and  the  civil  war  began  afresh.  Not 
even  the  assassination  of  the  brave  and,  in  combat  with  the 
peoples  of  Turan,  victorious  Vardanes  put  an  end  to  it ; 
the  opposition  party  now  turned  to  Kome  and  besought 
from  the  government  there  the  son  of  Yonones,  the  prince 
Meherdates  then  living  in  Eome,  who  thereupon  was 
placed  by  the  emperor  Claudius  before  the  assembled 
senate  at  the  disposal  of  his  countrymen  and  sent  away  to 
Syria  with  the  exhortation  to  administer  his  new  kingdom 
well  and  justly,  and  to  remain  mindful  of  the  friendly  pro- 
tectorate of  Rome  (49).  He  did  not  reach  the  position  in 
which  these  exhortations  might  be  applied.  The  Roman 
legions,  which  escorted  him  as  far  as  the  Euphrates,  there 
delivered  him  over  to  those  who  had  called  him — the  head 
of  the  powerful  princely  family  of  the  Caren  and  the  kings 
Abgarus  of  Edessa  and  Izates  of  Adiabene.  The  inex- 
perienced and  un warlike  youth  was  as  little  equal  to  the 
task  as  all  the  other  Parthian  rulers  set  up  by  the  Romans; 
a  number  of  his  most  noted  adherents  left  him  so  soon  as 
they  learned  to  know  him,  and  went  to  Gotarzes  ;  in  the 
decisive  battle  the  fall  of  the  brave  Caren  turned  the  scale. 
Meherdates  was  taken  prisoner  and  not  even  executed,  but 

1  The  statement  of  Petrus  Patricius  (/n  3  Miill. )  that  King  Mith- 
radates  of  Iberia  had  planned  revolt  from  Rome,  bat  in  order  to 
preserve  the  semblance  of  fidelity,  had  sent  his  brother  Cotjs  to 
Claudius,  and  then,  when  the  latter  had  given  information  to  the 
emperor  of  those  intrigues,  had  been  deposed  and  replaced  by  his 
brother,  is  not  compatible  with  the  assured  fact  that  in  Iberia,  at 
least  from  the  year  35  (Tacitus,  Ann.  vi.  32)  till  the  year  60  (Taci- 
tus, Ann.  xiv.  26),  Pharasmanes,  and  in  the  year  75  his  son  Mithra- 
dates  (C  Z  L.  iii.  6052)  bore  rule.  Beyond  doubt  Petrus  has  con- 
fused Mithradates  of  Iberia  and  the  king  of  the  Bosporus  of  the 
same  name  (i.  343,  note  1),  and  here  at  the  bottom  lies  the  narra- 
tive, which  Tacitus,  Ann.  xii.  18,  presupposes. 
Vol.  II.— 4 


50 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  YIII. 


only,  after  tlie  Oriental  fashion,  rendered  incapable  of  gov- 
ernment by  mutilation  of  the  ears. 

Notwithstanding  this  defeat  of  Roman  policy  in  the 
Parthian  kingdom,  Armenia  remained  with 

Armenia  occu-  ^  ' 

pied  by  the  Par-  the  Eomans,  SO  long  as  the  weak  Gotarzes 
ruled  over  the  Parthian s.  But  so  soon  as  a 
more  vigorous  hand  grasped  the  reins  of  sovereignty,  and 
the  internal  conflict  ceased,  the  struggle  for  that  land  was 
resumed.  King  Yologasus,  who  after  the  death  of  Gotar- 
zes and  the  short  reign  of  Vonones  II.  succeeded  this  his 
father  in  the  year  51,'  ascended  the  throne,  exceptionally, 
in  full  agreement  with  his  two  brothers  Pacorus  and  Tiri- 
dates.  He  was  an  able  and  prudent  ruler — we  find  him 
even  as  a  founder  of  towns,  and  exerting  himself  with  suc- 
cess to  divert  the  trade  of  Palmyra  towards  his  new  town 
Vologasias  on  the  lower  Euphrates — averse  to  quick  and 
extreme  resolutions,  and  endeavouring,  if  possible,  to  keep 
peace  with  his  powerful  neighbour.  But  the  recovery  of 
Armenia  was  the  leading  political  idea  of  the  dynasty,  and 
he  too  was  ready  to  make  use  of  any  opportunity  for  real- 
ising it. 

This  opportunity  seemed  now  to  present  itself.  The 
Armenian  court  had  become  the  scene  of  one 

Rhadamistus.        p  i-\  i  ii-         f      mx  t 

of  the  most  revolting  family  tragedies  which 
history  records.  The  old  king  of  the  Iberians,  Pharas- 
manes,  undertook  to  eject  his  brother  Mithradates,  the 
king  of  Armenia,  from  the  throne  and  to  put  his  own 
son  Rhadamistus  in  his  place.  Under  the  pretext  of  a 
quarrel  with  his  father  Rhadamistus  appeared  at  the  court 
of  his  uncle  and  father-in-law,  and  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  Armenians  of  repute  in  that  sense.  After  he 
had  secured  a  body  of  adherents,  Pharasmanes,  in  the 

^  If  the  coins,  which,  it  is  true,  for  the  most  part  admit  of  being 
distinguished  only  by  resemblance  of  effigy,  are  correctly  attributed, 
those  of  Gotarzes  reach  to  Sel.  362  Daesius  —  a.d,  51  June,  and 
those  of  Vologasus  (we  know  none  of  Vonones  11.)  begin  with  Sel. 
362  Gorpiaeus  —  a.d.  51  Sept.  (Percy  Gardner,  Parthian  Coinage, 
pp.  50,  51)^  which  agrees  with  Tacitus,  Amt.  xii,  14,  44. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


51 


year  52,  under  frivolous  pretexts  involved  his  brother  in 
war,  and  brought  the  country  into  his  own  or  rather  his 
son's  power.  Mithradates  placed  himself  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Koman  garrison  of  the  fortress  of  Gorneae/ 
Ehadamistus  did  not  venture  to  attack  this  ;  but  the  com- 
mandant, Caelius  Pollio,  was  well  known  as  worthless  and 
venal.  The  centurion  holding  command  under  him  re- 
sorted to  Pharasmanes  to  induce  him  to  recall  his  troops, 
which  the  latter  promised,  but  did  not  keep  his  word. 
During  the  absence  of  the  second  in  command  Pollio  com- 
pelled the  king — who  doubtless  guessed  what  was  before 
him — by  the  threat  of  leaving  him  in  the  lurch,  to  dehver 
himself  into  the  hands  of  Ehadamistus.  By  the  latter  he 
was  put  to  death,  and  with  him  his  wife,  the  sister  of 
Ehadamistus,  and  their  children,  because  they  broke  out 
in  cries  of  lamentation  at  the  sight  of  the  dead  bodies  of 
their  parents.  In  this  way  Ehadamistus  attained  to  sov- 
ereignty over  Armenia.  The  Eoman  government  ought 
neither  to  have  looked  on  at  such  horrors,  of  which  its 
officers  shared  the  guilt,  nor  to  have  tolerated  that  one  of 
its  vassals  should  make  war  on  another.  Nevertheless  the 
governor  of  Cappadocia,  Julius  Paelignus,  acknowledged 
the  new  king  of  Armenia.  Even  in  the  council  of  the 
governor  of  Syria,  Ummidius  Quadratus,  the  opinion  pre- 
ponderated that  it  might  be  matter  of  indifference  to  the 
Eomans  whether  the  uncle  or  the  nephew  ruled  Armenia  ; 
the  legate,  sent  to  Armenia  with  a  legion,  received  only  in- 
structions to  maintain  the  statm  quo  till  further  orders. 
Then  the  Parthian  king,  on  the  assumption  that  the  Eoman 
government  would  not  be  zealous  to  take  part  for  king 
Ehadamistus,  deemed  the  moment  a  fit  one  for  resuming 
his  old  claims  upon  Armenia.  He  invested  his  brother  Tiri- 
dates  with  Armenia,  and  the  Parthian  troops  marching  in 
possessed  themselves,  almost  without  striking  a  blow,  of  the 
two  capitals,  Tigranocerta  and  Artaxata,  and  of  the  whole 
land.    When  Ehadamistus  made  an  attempt  to  retain  the 

'  Grorneae,  called  by  the  Armenians  Oarhni,  as  the  ruins  (nearly 
east  of  Erivan)  are  still  at  present  named.  (Kiepert.) 


52 


The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


[Book  VIII. 


price  of  his  deeds  of  blood,  the  Armenians  themselves 
drove  him  out  of  the  land.  The  Roman  garrison  appears 
to  have  left  Armenia  after  the  giving  over  of  Gorneae ;  the 
governor  recalled  the  legion  put  upon  the  march  from 
Syria,  in  order  not  to  fall  into  conflict  with  the  Parthians. 
When  this  news  came  to  Rome  (at  the  end  of  54)  the 

emperor  Claudius  had  just  died,  and  the  min- 
cappadoS**''  Istcrs  Burrus  and  Seneca  practically  governed 

for  his  young  successor,  seventeen  years  old. 
The  procedure  of  Vologasus  could  only  be  answered  by  a 
declaration  of  war.  In  fact  the  Roman  government  sent 
to  Cappadocia,  which  otherwise  was  a  governorship  of  the 
second  rank  and  was  not  furnished  with  legions,  by  way 
of  exception  the  consular  legate  Gnaeus  Domitius  Corbulo. 
He  had  come  rapidly  into  prominence  as  son-in-law  of  the 
emperor  Gains,  had  then  under  Claudius  been  legate  of 
lower  Germany  in  the  year  47  (i.  136),  and  was  thence- 
forth regarded  as  one  of  the  able  commanders,  not  at  that 
time  numerous,  who  energetically  maintained  the  strin- 
gency of  discipline — in  person  a  Herculean  figure,  equal 
to  any  fatigue,  and  of  unshrinking  courage  in  presence 
not  of  the  enemy  merely  but  also  of  his  own  soldiers.  It 
appeared  to  be  a  sign  of  things  becoming  better  that  the 
government  of  Nero  gave  to  him  the  first  important  com- 
mand which  it  had  to  fill.  The  incapable  Syrian  legate  of 
Syria,  Quadratus,  was  not  recalled,  but  was  directed  to 
put  two  of  his  four  legions  at  the  disposal  of  the  gover- 
nor of  the  neighbouring  province.  All  the  legions  were 
brought  up  to  the  Euphrates,  and  order  were  given  for 
the  immediate  throwing  of  bridges  over  the  stream.  The 
two  regions  bordering  immediately  on  Armenia  to  the 
westward.  Lesser  Armenia  and  Sophene,  were  assigned  to 
two  trustworthy  Syrian  princes,  Aristobulus,  of  a  lateral 
branch  of  the  Herodian  house,  and  Sohaemus,  of  the 
ruling  family  of  Hemesa,  and  both  were  placed  under 
Corbulo' s  command.  Agrippa,  the  king  of  the  remnant 
of  the  Jewish  state  still  left  at  that  time,  and  Antiochus, 
king  of  Commagene,  likewise  received  orders  to  march. 


CiiAP.  IX.  1         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


53 


At  first,  however,  no  fighting  took  place.  The  reason 
lay  partly  in  the  state  of  the  Syrian  legions  ; 
hS^troops!"^  it  was  a  bad  confession  of  poverty  for  the 
previous  administration,  that  Corbulo  was 
compelled  to  describe  the  troops  assigned  to  him  as  quite 
unserviceable.  The  legions  levied  and  doing  garrison 
duty  in  the  Greek  provinces  had  always  been  inferior  to 
the  Occidentals  ;  now  the  enervating  power  of  the  East 
with  the  long  state  of  peace  and  the  laxity  of  discipline 
completely  demoralised  them.  The  soldiers  abode  more 
in  the  towns  than  in  the  camps ;  not  a  few  of  them  were 
unaccustomed  to  carry  arms,  and  knew  nothing  of  pitch- 
ing camps  and  of  service  on  the  watch  ;  the  regiments 
were  far  from  having  their  full  complement  and  contained 
numerous  old  and  useless  men  ;  Corbulo  had,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  dismiss  a  great  number  of  soldiers,  and  to 
levy  and  train  recruits  in  still  larger  numbers.  The  ex- 
change of  the  comfortable  winter  quarters  on  the  Orontes 
for  those  in  the  rugged  mountains  of  Armenia,  and  the 
sudden  introduction  of  inexorably  stern  discipline  in  the 
camp,  brought  about  various  ailments  and  occasioned 
numerous  desertions.  In  spite  of  all  this  the  general 
found  himself,  when  matters  became  serious,  compelled  to 
ask  that  one  of  the  better  legions  of  the 'West  might  be 
sent  to  him.  Under  these  circumstances  he  was  in  no 
haste  to  bring  his  soldiers  to  face  the  enemy  ;  nevertheless 
it  was  political  considerations  that  preponderantly  influ- 
enced him  in  this  course. 

If  it  had  been  the  design  of  the  Roman  government  to 
drive  out  the  Parthian  ruler  at  once  from 
SIf  wa?!^  Armenia,  and  to  put  in  his  place  not  indeed 
Ehadamistus,  with  whose  blood-guiltiness  the 
Romans  had  no  occasion  to  stain  themselves,  but  some 
other  prince  of  their  choice,  the  military  resources  of 
Corbulo  would  probably  have  at  once  sufficed,  since  king 
Vologasus,  once  more  recalled  by  internal  troubles,  had 
led  away  his  troops  from  Armenia.  But  this  was  not 
embraced  in  the  plan  of  the  Romans  ;  they  wished,  on  the 


54 


The  EujphratGS  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


contrary,  rather  to  acquiesce  in  the  government  of  Tiri- 
dates  there,  and  only  to  induce  and,  in  case  of  need, 
compel  him  to  an  acknowledgment  of  the  Roman  su- 
premacy ;  only  for  this  object  were  the  legions,  in  case  of 
extremity,  to  march.  This  in  reality  came  very  near  to 
the  cession  of  Armenia  to  the  Parthians.  What  told  in 
favour  of  this  course,  and  what  prevented  it,  has  formerly 
been  set  forth  (p.  37.  f.).  If  Armenia  were  now  arranged 
as  a  Parthian  appanage  for  a  second  son,  the  recognition 
of  the  Roman  suzerainty  was  little  more  than  a  formality, 
strictly  taken,  nothing  but  a  screen  for  military  and 
political  honour.  Thus  the  government  of  the  earlier 
period  of  Nero,  which,  as  is  well  known,  was  equalled  by 
few  in  insight  and  energy,  intended  to  get  rid  of  Armenia 
in  a  decorous  way  ;  and  that  need  not  surprise  us.  In 
fact  they  were  in  this  case  pouring  water  into  a  sieve.  The 
possession  of  Armenia  had  doubtless  been  asserted  and 
brought  to  recognition  within  the  land  itself,  as  among 
the  Parthians,  through  Tiberius  in  the  year  20  b.c.,  then 
by  Gains  in  the  year  2,  by  Germanicus  in  the  year  18,  and 
by  Vitellius  in  the  year  36.  But  it  was  just  these  extra- 
ordinary expeditions  regularly  repeated  and  regularly 
crowned  with  success,  and  yet  never  attaining  to  per- 
manent effect,  that  justified  the  Parthians,  when  in  the 
negotiations  with  Nero  they  maintained  that  the  Roman 
suzerainty  over  Armenia  was  an  empty  name — that  the 
land  was,  and  could  be,  none  other  than  Parthian.  For 
the  vindication  of  the  Roman  supreme  authority  there  was 
always  needed,  if  not  the  waging  of  war,  at  least  the 
threat  of  it ;  and  the  constant  irritation  thereby  produced 
made  a  lasting  state  of  peace  between  the  two  neighbour- 
ing great  powers  impossible.  The  Romans  had,  if  they 
were  to  act  consistently,  only  the  choice  between  either 
bringing  Armenia  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates  in 
general  effectively  under  their  power  by  setting  aside  the 
mere  mediate  government,  or  leaving  the  matter  to  the 
Parthians,  so  far  as  was  compatible  with  the  supreme 
principle  of  the  Roman  government  to  acknowledge  no 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


55 


frontier-power  with  equal  rights.  Augustus  and  the  rulers 
hitherto  acting  had  decidedly  declined  the  former  alterna- 
tive, and  they  ought  therefore  to  have  taken  the  second 
course  ;  but  this  too  they  had  at  least  attempted  to  decline, 
and  had  wished  to  exclude  the  Parthian  royal  house  from 
the  rule  over  Armenia,  without  being  able  to  do  so.  This 
the  leading  statesmen  of  the  earlier  Neronian  period  must 
have  regarded  as  an  error,  since  they  left  Armenia  to  the 
Arsacids,  and  restricted  themselves  to  the  smallest  con- 
ceivable measure  of  rights  thereto.  When  the  dangers 
and  the  disadvantages,  which  the  retention  of  this  region 
only  externally  attached  to  the  empire  brought  to  the 
state,  were  weighed  against  those  which  the  Parthian  rule 
over  Armenia  involved  for  the  Romans,  the  decision  might, 
especially  in  view  of  the  small  offensive  power  of  the 
Parthian  kingdom,  well  be  found  in  the  latter  sense.  But 
under  all  the  circumstances  this  policy  was  consistent,  and 
sought  to  attain  in  a  clearer  and  more  rational  way  the 
aim  pursued  by  Augustus. 

From  this  standpoint  we  understand  why  Corbulo  and 

Quadratus,  instead  of  crossing  the  Euphrates, 
wilTwogasus.  entered  into  negotiations  with  Vologasus  ;  and 

not  less  why  the  latter,  informed  doubtless  of 
the  real  designs  of  the  Romans,  agreed  to  submit  to  the 
Romans  in  a  similar  way  with  his  predecessor,  and  to  de- 
liver to  them  as  a  pledge  of  peace  a  number  of  hostages 
closely  connected  with  the  royal  house.  The  return  tacitly 
agreed  on  for  this  was  that  the  rule  of  Tiridates  over  Ar- 
menia should  be  tolerated,  and  that  a  Roman  pretender 
should  not  be  set  up.  So  some  years  passed  in  a  de  facto 
state  of  peace.  But  when  Vologasus  and  Tiridates  did  not 
agree  to  apply  to  the  Roman  government  for  the  invest- 
ing of  the  latter  with  Armenia, '  Corbulo  took  the  offensive 

^  Even  after  the  attack  Tiridates  complained  cur  datis  nuper  ob- 
sidibus  redintegrataque  amicitia  .  .  .  mtere  Armeniae  posses- 
done  depelleretur^  and  Corbulo  presented  to  him,  in  case  of  his  turn- 
ing as  a  suppliant  to  the  emperor,  the  prospect  of  a  regnum  stabile 
(Tacitus,  Anil.  xii.  37).    Elsewhere  too  the  refusal  of  the  oath  of 


56 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


against  Tiridates  in  the  year  58.  The  very  policy  of  with- 
drawal and  concession,  if  it  w^as  not  to  appear  to  friend  and 
foe  as  weakness,  needed  a  foil,  and  so  either  a  formal  and 
solemn  recognition  of  the  Roman  supremacy  or,  better 
still,  a  victory  won  by  arms. 

In  the  summer  of  the  year  58  Corbulo  led  an  army, 

tolerably  fit  for  fighting,  of  at  least  30,000 
AmeniL!'^       men,  over  the  Euphrates.    The  reorganisation 

and  the  hardening  of  the  troops  were  com- 
pleted by  the  campaign  itself,  and  the  first  winter- quar- 
ters were  taken  up  on  Armenian  soil.  In  the  spring  of  59' 
he  began  the  advance  in  the  direction  of  Artaxata.  At  the 
same  time  Armenia  was  invaded  from  the  north  by  the 
Iberians,  whose  king  Pharasmanes,  to  cover  his  own  crimes, 
had  caused  his  son  Rhadamistus  to  be  executed,  and  now 
further  endeavoured  by  good  services  to  make  his  guilt  be 
forgotten;  and  not  less  by  their  neighbours  to  the  north- 
west, the  brave  Moschi,  and  on  the  south  by  Antiochus, 
king  of  Commagene.  King  Vologasus  was  detained  by  the 
revolt  of  the  Hyrcanians  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  king- 
fealty  is  indicated  as  tfie  proper  ground  of  war  (Tacitus,  Ann. 

xii.  34). 

'  The  report  in  Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  34-41,  embraces  beyond  doubt 
the  campaigns  of  58  and  59,  since  Tacitus  under  the  year  59  is  silent 
as  to  the  Armenian  campaign,  while  under  the  year  60,  Ann.  xiv. 
23  joins  on  immediately  to  xiii.  41,  and  evidently  describes  merely 
a  single  campaign;  generally,  where  he  condenses  in  this  way,  he  as 
a  rule  anticipates.  That  the  war  cannot  have  begun  only  in  59,  is 
further  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  Corbulo  observed  the  solar  eclipse 
of  30th  April  59  on  Armenian  soil  (Plin.  H.  N.  ii.  70,  180);  had  he 
not  entered  the  country  till  59,  he  could  hardly  hsfve  crossed  the 
enemy's  frontier  so  early  in  the  year.  The  narrative  of  Tacitus,  Ann. 

xiii.  34-41,  does  not  in  itself  show  an  intercalation  of  a  year,  but 
with  his  mode  of  narrating  it  admits  the  possibility  that  the  first 
year  was  spent  in  the  crossing  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  settling  in 
Armenia,  and  so  the  winter  mentioned  in  c.  35  is  that  of  the  year 
58-59,  especially  as  in  view  of  the  character  of  the  army  such  a  be- 
ginning to  the  war  would  be  quite  in  place,  and  in  view  of  the  short 
Armenian  summer  it  was  militarily  convenient  thus  to  separate  the 
marching  into  the  country  and  the  conduct  proper  of  the  war. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 

dom,  and  could  or  would  not  interfere  directly  in  the 
struggle.  Tiridates  offered  a  courageous  resistance,  but 
lie  could  do  nothing  against  the  crushing  superiority  of 
force.  In  vain  he  sought  to  throw  himself  on  the  lines  of 
communication  of  the  Komans,  who  obtained  their  neces- 
sary supplies  by  way  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  port  of  Tra- 
pezus.  The  strongholds  of  Armenia  fell  under  the  attacks 
of  the  Roman  assailants,  and  the  garrisons  were  cut  down 
to  the  last  man.  Defeated  in  a  pitched  battle  under  the 
walls  of  Artaxata,  Tiridates  gave  up  the  unequal  struggle, 
and  went  to  the  Parthians.  Artaxata  surrendered,  and 
here,  in  the  heart  of  Armenia,  the  Roman  army  passed  the 
winter.  In  the  spring  of  60  Corbulo  broke  up  from  thence, 
after  having  burnt  down  the  town,  and  marched  right 
across  the  country  to  its  second  capital  Tigranocerta, 
above  Nisibis,  in  the  basin  of  the  Tigris.  The  terrors  of  the 
destruction  of  Artaxata  preceded  him  ;  serious  resistance 
was  nowhere  offered;  even  Tigranocerta  voluntarily  opened 
its  gates  to  the  victor,  who  here  in  a  well-calculated  way 
allowed  mercy  to  prevail.  Tiridates  still  made  an  attempt 
to  return  and  to  resume  the  struggle,  but  was  repulsed 
without  special  exertion.  At  the  close  of  the  summer  of 
60  all  Armenia  was  subdued,  and  stood  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Roman  government. 

It  is  conceivable  that  people  in  Rome  now  left  Tiridates 

out  of  account.  The  prince  Tigranes,  a  great- 
Sl'rmeniS''^   graudsou  ou  the  father's  side  of  Herod  the 

Great,  on  the  mother's  of  king  Archelaus  of 
Cappadocia,  related  also  to  the  old  Marenian  royal  house 
on  the  female  side,  and  a  nephew  of  one  of  the  ephemeral 
rulers  of  Armenia  in  the  last  years  of  Augustus,  brought 
up  in  Rome,  and  entirely  a  tool  of  the.  Roman  government, 
was  now  (60)  invested  by  Nero  with  the  kingdom  of  Ar- 
menia, and  at  the  emperor's  command  installed  by  Corbulo 
in  its  rule.  In  the  country  there  was  left  a  Roman  gar- 
rison, 1000  legionaries,  and  from  3000  to  4000  cavalry  and 
infantry  of  auxiliaries.  A  portion  of  the  border  land  was 
separated  from  Armenia  and  distributed  among  the  neigh- 


58 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


bouring  kings,  Polemon  of  Pontus  and  Trapezus,  Aris- 
tobulas  of  Lesser  Ai-menia,  Pharasmanes  of  Iberia  and 
Antioclius  of  Commagene.  On  the  other  band  the  new 
master  of  Armenia  advanced,  of  course  with  consent  of  the 
Romans,  into  the  adjacent  Parthian  province  of  Adiabene, 
defeated  Monobazus  the  governor  there,  and  appeared  de- 
sirous of  wresting  this  region  also  from  the  Parthian  state. 
This  turn  of  affairs  compelled  the  Parthian  government 
to  emerge  from  its  passiveness  ;  the  question 

Negotiations  t  i  ji  e 

with  the  Par-  uow  concemed  no  longer  the  recovery  oi 
thians.  Armenia,  but  the  integrity  of  the  Parthian 

empire.  The  long-threatened  collision  between  the  two 
great  states  seemed  inevitable.  Vologasus  in  an  assembly 
of  the  grandees  of  the  empire  confirmed  Tiridates  afresh 
as  king  of  Armenia,  and  sent  with  him  the  general  Monae- 
ses  against  the  Boman  usurper  of  the  land,  who  was  be- 
sieged by  the  Parthians  in  Tigranocerta,  which  the  Ro- 
man troops  kept  in  their  possession.  Vologasus  in  person 
collected  the  Parthian  main  force  in  Mesopotamia,  and 
threatened  (at  the  beginning  of  61)  Syria.  Corbulo,  who, 
after  Quadratus's  death,  held  the  command  for  a  time  in 
Cappadocia  as  in  Sj^ria,  but  had  besought  from  the  gov- 
ernment, the  nomination  of  another  governor  for  Cappa- 
docia and  Armenia,  sent  provisionally  two  legions  to  Ar- 
menia to  lend  help  to  Tigranes,  while  he  in  person  moved 
to  the  Euphrates  in  order  to  receive  the  Parthian  king. 
Again,  however,  they  came  not  to  blows,  but  to  an  agree- 
ment. Vologasus,  well  knowing  how  dangerous  was  the 
game  which  he  was  beginning,  declared  himself  now  ready 
to  enter  into  the  terms  vainly  offered  by  the  Romans  be- 
fore the  outbreak  of  the  Armenian  war,  and  to  allow  the  in- 
vestiture of  his  brother  by  the  Roman  emperor.  Corbulo 
entered  into  the  proposal.  He  let  Tigranes  drop,  withdrew 
the  Roman  troops  from  Armenia,  and  acquiesced  in  Tiridates 
establishing  himself  there,  while  the  Parthian  auxiliary 
troops  likewise  withdrew  ;  on  the  other  hand,  Vologasus 
sent  an  embassy  to  the  Roman  government,  and  declared  the 
readiness  of  his  brother  to  take  the  land  in  fee  from  Rome. 


Chap.  IX.]         77^^  Eiiphrates  Frontier. 


59 


These  measures  of  Corbulo  were  of  a  hazardous  kind,' 
and  led  to  a  bad  compHcation.    The  Koman 

The  Par-  . 

thianwar  general  may  possibly  have  been,  still  more 
under  Nero.  thoroughly  than  the  statesmen  in  Kome,  im- 
pressed by  the  uselessness  of  retaining  Armenia  ;  but  after 
the  Roman  government  had  installed  Tigranes  as  king  of 
Armenia,  he  might  not  of  his  own  accord  fall  back  upon 
the  conditions  earlier  laid  down,  least  of  all  abandon  his 
own  acquisitions  and  withdraw  the  Roman  troops  from 
Armenia.  He  was  the  less  entitled  to  do  so,  as  he  ad- 
ministered Cappadocia  and  Armenia  merely  ad  interim, 
and  had  himself  declared  to  the  government  that  he  was 
not  in  a  position  to  exercise  the  command  at  once  there 
and  in  Syria  ;  whereupon  the  consular  Lucius  Caesennius 
Paetus  was  nominated  as  governor  of  Cappadocia  and  was 
already  on  the  way  thither.  The  suspicion  can  hardly  be 
avoided  that  Corbulo  grudged  the  latter  the  honour  of  the 
final  subjugation  of  Armenia,  and  wished  before  his  arrival 
to  establish  a  definitive  solution  by  the  actual  conclusion  of 
peace  with  the  Parthians.  The  Roman  government  ac- 
cordingly declined  the  proposals  of  Vologasus  and  in- 
sisted on  the  retention  of  Armenia,  which,  as  the  new 
governor  who  arrived  in  Cappadocia  in  the  course  of  the 
summer  of  61  declared,  was  even  to  be  taken  under  direct 
Roman  administration.  AVhether  the  Roman  government 
had  really  resolved  to  go  so  far  cannot  be  ascertained  ;  but 
this  was  at  all  events  implied  in  the  consistent  following 
out  of  their  policy.  The  installing  of  a  king  dependent  on 
Rome  was  only  a  prolongation  of  the  previous  untenable 
state  of  things  ;  whoever  did  not  wish  the  cession  of  Ar- 
menia to  the  Parthians  had  to  contemplate  the  conversion 
of  the  kingdom  into  a  Roman  province.  The  war  therefore 
took  its  course  ;  and  on  that  account  one  of  the  Moesian 
legions  was  sent  to  the  Cappadocian  army. 

^  From  the  representation  of  Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  6,  the  partiality 
and  the  perplexity  are  clearly  seen.  He  does  not  venture  to  ex- 
press the  surrender  of  Armenia  to  Tiridates,  and  only  leaves  the 
reader  to  infer  it. 


60 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


Wlaen  Paetus  arrived,  the  two  legions  assigned  to  him 
by  Corbulo  were  encamped  on  this  side  of  the 
^^Paetus  Euphrates  in  Cappadocia  ;  Armenia  was  evac- 
uated, and  had  to  be  reconquered.  Paetus 
set  at  once  to  work,  crossed  the  Euphrates  at  Mehtene 
(Malatia),  advanced  into  Armenia,  and  reduced  the  nearest 
strongholds  on  the  border.  The  advanced  season  of  the 
year,  however,  compelled  him  soon  to  suspend  operations 
and  to  abandon  for  this  year  the  intended  reoccupation 
of  Tigranocerta ;  nevertheless,  in  order  to  resume  his 
march  at  once  next  spring,  he,  after  Corbulo's  example, 
took  up  his  winter-quarters  in  the  enemy's  country  at 
Khandeia,  on  a  tributary  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Arsanias, 
not  far  from  the  modern  Charput,  while  the  baggage  and 
the  women  and  children  had  quarters  not  far  from  it  in 
the  strong  fortress  of  Arsamosata.  But  he  had  under- 
rated the  difficulty  of  the  undertaking.  One,  and  that  the 
best  of  his  legions,  the  Moesian,  was  still  on  the  march, 
and  spent  the  winter  on  this  side  of  the  Euphrates  in  the 
territory  of  Pontus  ;  the  two  others  were  not  those  whom 
Corbulo  had  taught  to  fight  and  conquer,  but  the  former 
Syrian  legions  of  Quadratus,  not  having  their  full  com- 
plement, and  hardly  capable  of  use  without  thorough  re- 
organisation. He  had  withal  to  confront  not,  like  Cor- 
bulo, the  Armenians  alone,  but  the  main  body  of  the 
Parthians  ;  Vologasus  had,  when  the  war  became  in  earn- 
est, led  the  flower  of  his  troops  from  Mesopotamia  to  Ar- 
menia, and  judiciously  availed  himself  of  the  strategical 
advantage  that  he  commanded  the  inner  and  shorter  lines. 
Carbulo  might,  especially  as  he  had  bridged  over  the  Eu- 
phrates and  constructed  tetes  de  pont  on  the  other  bank, 
have  at  least  hampered,  or  at  any  rate  requited  this  march- 
ing off  by  a  seasonable  incursion  into  Mesopotamia  ;  but 
he  did  not  stir  from  his  positions  and  he  left  it  to  Paetus 
to  defend  himself,  as  best  he  could,  against  the  whole 
force  of  his  foes.  The  latter  was  neither  himself  military 
nor  ready  to  accept  and  follow  military  advice,  not  even 
a  man  of  resolute  character ;  arrogant  and  boastful  in 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


61 


onset,  despairing  and  pusillanimous  in  presence  of  mis- 
fortune. 

Thus  there  came  what  could  not  but  come.  In  the 
spring  of  62  it  was  not  Paetus  who  assumed 
ShandSai°"^^  the  aggressive,  but  Vologasus  ;  the  advanced 
troops  who  were  to  bar  the  way  of  the  Par- 
thians  were  crushed  by  the  superior  force  ;  the  attack 
was  soon  converted  into  a  siege  of  the  Eoman  positions 
pitched  far  apart  in  the  winter  camp  and  the  fortress. 
The  legions  could  neither  advance  nor  retreat ;  the  sol- 
diers deserted  in  masses  ;  the  only  hope  rested  on  Corbu- 
lo's  legions  lying  inactive  far  off  in  northern  Syria,  beyond 
doubt  at  Zeugma.  Both  generals  shared  in  the  blame  of 
the  disaster :  Corbulo  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  his 
starting  to  render  help,*^  although,  when  he  did  recognise 
the  whole  extent  of  the  danger,  he  hastened  his  march  as 
much  as  possible  ;  Paetus,  because  he  could  not  take  the 
bold  resolution  to  perish  rather  than  to  surrender,  and 
thereby  lost  the  chance  of  rescue  that  was  near — in  three 
days  longer  the  5000  men  whom  Corbulo  was  leading  up 
would  have  brought  the  longed-for  help.  The  conditions 
of  the  capitulation  were  free  retreat  for  the  Komans  and 
evacuation  of  Armenia,  with  the  delivering  up  of  all  for- 
tresses occupied  by  them,  and  of  all  the  stores  that  were 
in  their  hands,  of  which  the  Parthians  were  urgently  in 
need.    On  the  other  hand  Vologasus  declared  himself 

^  This  is  said  by  Tacitus  himself  Ann.  xv.  10 :  nec  a  Corbulone 
properatum,  quo  gliscentibus  periculis  etiam  subsidii  laus  augeretur, 
in  naive  unconcern  at  the  severe  censure  which  this  praise  involves. 
How  partial  is  the  tone  of  the  whole  account  resting  on  Corbulo's 
despatches,  is  shown  among  other  things  by  the  circumstance  that 
Paetus  is  reproached  in  one  breath  with  the  inadequate  provision- 
ing of  the  camp  (xv.  8)  and  with  the  surrender  of  it  in  spite  of  co- 
pious supplies  (xv.  16),  and  the  latter  fact  is  inferred  from  this,  that 
the  retiring  Romans  preferred  to  destroy  the  stores  which,  according 
to  the  capitulation,  were  to  be  delivered  to  the  Parthians.  As  the 
exasperation  against  Tiberius  found  its  expression  in  the  painting 
of  Germanicus  in  fine  colours,  so  did  the  exasperation  against  Nero 
in  the  picture  of  Corbulo. 


62 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


ready,  in  spite  of  this  military  success,  to  ask  Armenia  as 
a  Koman  fief  for  his  brother  from  the  imperial  govern- 
ment, and  on  that  account  to  send  envoys  to  Nero.'  The 
moderation  of  the  victor  may  have  rested  on  the  fact  that 
he  had  better  information  of  Corbulo's  approach  than  the 
enclosed  army  ;  but  more  probably  the  sagacious  man  was 
not  concerned  to  renew  the  disaster  of  Crassus  and  bring 
Eoman  eagles  again  to  Ctesiphon.  The  defeat  of  a  Roman 
army — he  knew — was  not  the  overpowering  of  Rome  ;  and 
the  real  concession,  which  was  involved  in  the  recognition 
of  Tiridates,  was  not  too  dearly  purchased  by  the  compli- 
ance as  to  form. 

The  Roman  government  once  more  declined  the  offer  of 

the  Parthian  king  and  ordered  the  continuance 
peTct™''^    of  t^e  war.    It  could  not  well  do  otherwise  ; 

if  the  recognition  of  Tiridates  was  hazardous 
before  the  recommencement  of  war,  and  hardly  capable  of 
being  accepted  after  the  Parthian  declaration  of  war,  it  now, 
as  a  consequence  of  the  capitulation  of  Rhandeia,  appeared 
directly  as  its  ratification.  From  Rome  the  resumption  of 
the  struggle  against  the  Parthians  was  energetically  pro- 
moted. Paetus  was  recalled ;  Corbulo,  in  whom  public 
opinion,  aroused  by  the  disgraceful  capitulation,  saw  only 
the  conqueror  of  Armenia,  and  whom  even  those  who  knew 
exactly  and  judged  sharply  the  state  of  the  matter  could 
not  avoid  characterising  as  the  ablest  general  and  one 
uniquely  fitted  for  this  war,  took  up  again  the  governor- 
ship of  Cappadocia,  and  at  the  same  time  the  command 
over  all  the  troops  available  for  this  campaign,  who  were 
further  reinforced  by  a  seventh  legion  brought  up  from 
Pannonia  ;  accordingly  all  the  governors  and  princes  of 
the  East  were  directed  to  comply  in  military  matters  with 
his  orders,  so  that  his  ofiicial  authority  was  nearly  equiva- 

'  The  statement  of  Corbiilo  that  Paetus  bound  himself  on  oath  in 
presence  of  his  soldiers  and  of  the  Parthian  deputies  to  send  no 
troops  to  Armenia  till  the  arrival  of  Nero's  answer,  is  declared  by- 
Tacitus,  Ann.  XV.  16,  unworthy  of  credit ;  it  is  in  keeping  with  the 
state  of  the  case,  and  nothing  was  done  to  the  contrary. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


63 


lent  to  that  which  had  been  assigned  to  the  crown-princes 
Gains  and  Germanicus  for  their  missions  to  the  East.  If 
these  measures  were  intended  to  bring  about  a  serious 
reparation  of  the  honour  of  the  Koman  arms  they  missed 
their  aim.  How  Corbulo  looked  at  the  state  of  affairs,  is 
shown  by  the  very  agreement  which  he  made  with  the  Par- 
thian king  not  long  after  the  disaster  of  Ehandeia  ;  the 
latter  withdrew  the  Parthian  garrisons  from  Armenia,  the 
Romans  evacuated  the  fortresses  constructed  on  Mesopo- 
tamian  territory  for  the  protection  of  the  bridges.  For 
the  Roman  offensive  the  Parthian  garrisons  in  Armenia 
were  just  as  indifferent  as  the  bridges  of  the  Euphrates 
were  important ;  whereas,  if  Tiridates  was  to  be  recognised 
as  a  Roman  vassal-king  in  Armenia,  the  latter  certainly 
were  superfluous  and  Parthian  garrisons  in  Armenia  im- 
possible. In  the  next  spring  (63)  Corbulo  certainly  en- 
tered upon  the  offensive  enjoined  upon  him,  and  led  the 
four  best  of  his  legions  at  Melitene  over  the  Euphrates 
against  the  Partho-Armenian  main  force  stationed  in  the 
region  of  Arsamosata.  But  not  much  came  of  the  fight- 
ing ;  only  some  castles  of  Armenian  nobles  opposed  to 
Rome  were  destroyed.  On  the  other  hand,  this  encounter 
led  also  to  agreement.  Corbulo  took  up  the  Parthian 
proposals  formerly  rejected  by  his  government,  and  that, 
as  the  further  course  of  things  showed,  in  the  sense  that 
Armenia  became  once  for  all  a  Parthian  appanage  for  the 
second  son,  and  the  Roman  government,  at  least  according 
to  the  spirit  of  the  agreement,  consented  to  bestow  this 
crown  in  future  only  on  an  Arsacid.  It  was  only  added 
that  Tiridates  should  oblige  himself  to  take  from  his  head 
the  royal  diadem  publicly  before  the  eyes  of  the  two  ar- 
mies in  Rhandeia,  just  where  the  capitulation  had  been 
concluded,  and  to  deposit  it  before  the  effigy  of  the  em- 
peror, promising  not  to  put  it  on  again  until  he  should 
have  received  it  from  his  hand,  and  that  in  Rome  itself. 
This  was  done  (63).  By  this  humiliation  there  was  no 
change  in  the  fact  that  the  Roman  general,  instead  of  wag- 
ing the  war  intrusted  to  him,  concluded  peace  on  the 


64 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier, 


[Book  VIII. 


Tiridates  in 
Rome. 


terms  rejected  by  his  government.^  But  the  statesmen 
who  formerly  took  the  lead  had  meanwhile  died  or  retired, 
the  personal  government  of  the  emperor  was  installed  in 
their  stead,  and  the  solemn  act  in  Ehandeia  and  the  spec- 
tacle in  prospect  of  the  investiture  of  the  Parthian  prince 
with  the  crown  of  Armenia  in  the  capital  of  the  empire 
failed  not  to  produce  their  effect  on  the  public,  and  above 
all  on  the  emperor  in  person.  The  peace  was 
ratified  and  fulfilled.  In  the  year  66  the  Par- 
thian prince  appeared  according  to  promise  in 
Rome,  escorted  by  3000  Parthian  horsemen,  bringing  as 
hostages  the  children  of  his  three  brothers  as  well  as  those 
of  Monobazus  of  Adiabene.  Falling  on  his  knees  he  sa- 
luted his  liege  lord  seated  on  the  imperial  throne  in  the 
market-place  of  the  capital,  and  here  the  latter  in  pres- 
ence of  all  the  people  bound  the  royal  chaplet  round  his 
brow. 

The  conduct  on  both  sides,  cautious,  and  we  might  al- 
most say  peaceful,  of  the  last  nominally  ten 
Sie^Mavians?^^  years'  War,  and  its  corresponding  conclusion 
by  the  actual  transfer  of  Armenia  to  the  Par- 
thians,  while  the  susceptibilities  of  the  mightier  western 
empire  were  spared,  bore  good  fruit.  Armenia,  under  the 
national  dynasty  recognised  by  the  Eomans,  was  more  de- 
pendent on  them  than  formerly  under  the  rulers  forced 
upon  the  country.  A  Eoman  garrison  was  left  at  least 
in  the  district  of  Sophene,  which  most  closely  bordered 

^  As,  according  to  Tacitus,  Ann.  xv.  25  (comp.  Dio,  Ixii.  22), 
Nero  dismissed  graciously  the  envoys  of  Vologasus,  and  allowed 
them  to  see  the  possibility  of  an  understanding  if  Tiridates  appeared 
in  person,  Corbulo  may  in  this  case  have  acted  according  to  his  in- 
structions ;  but  this  was  rather  perhaps  one  of  the  turns  added  in 
the  interest  of  Corbulo.  That  these  events  were  brought  under  dis- 
cussion in  the  trial  to  which  he  was  subjected  some  years  after,  is 
probable  from  the  statement  that  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Armenian 
campaign  became  his  accuser.  The  identity  of  the  cohort-prefect, 
Arrius  Varus,  in  Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  9,  and  of  the  primipilus, 
Hist.  iii.  6,  has  been  without  reason  disputed ;  comp.  on  G.  I.  L. 
V.  867. 


Chap.  IX.  ]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


65 


on  the  Euphrates.'  For  the  re-establishment  of  Artaxata 
the  permission  of  the  emperor  was  sought  and  granted, 
and  the  building  was  helped  on  by  the  emperor  Nero  with 
money  and  workmen.  Between  the  two  mighty  states 
separated  from  each  other  by  the  Euphrates  at  no  time  has 
an  equally  good  relation  subsisted  as  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  treaty  of  Khandeia  in  the  last  years  of  Nero  and  on- 
ward under  the  three  rulers  of  the  Flavian  house.  Other 
circumstances  contributed  to  this.  The  masses  of  Trans- 
caucasian  peoples,  perhaps  allured  by  their  participation 
in  the  last  wars,  during  which  they  had  found  their  way  to 
Armenia  as  mercenaries,  partly  of  the  Iberians,  partly  of 
the  Parthians,  began  then  to  threaten  especially  the  west- 
ern Parthian  provinces,  but  at  the  same  time  the  eastern 
provinces  of  the  Roman  empire.  Probably  in  order  to 
check  them,  immediately  after  the  Armenian  war  in  the 
year  63,  the  annexation  was  ordained  of  the  so-called  king- 
dom of  Pontus,  i.e.  the  south-east  corner  of  the  coast  of 
the  Black  Sea,  with  the  town  of  Trapezus  and  the  region 
of  the  Phasis.  The  great  Oriental  expedition,  which  this 
emperor  was  just  on  the  point  of  beginning  when  the  ca- 
tastrophe overtook  him  (68),  and  for  which  he  already 
had  put  the  flower  of  the  troops  of  the  West  on  the  march, 
partly  to  Egypt,  partly  along  the  Danube,  was  meant  no 
doubt  to  push  forward  the  imperial  frontier  in  other  direc- 
tions ;  ^  but  its  proper  aim  was  the  passes  of  the  Caucasus 
above  Tiflis,  and  the  Scythian  tribes  settled  on  the  north- 
ern slope,  in  the  first  instance  the  Alani.^    These  were  just 

*  In  Ziata  (Charput)  there  have  been  found  two  inscriptions  of  a 
fort,  which  one  of  the  legions  led  by  Corbulo  over  the  Euphrates, 
the  3d  Gallica,  constructed  there  by  Corbulo's  orders  in  the  year  64 
{Eph.  epigr.  v.  p.  25). 

Nero  intended  inter  reliqua  bella,  an  Ethiopian  one  (Plin.  vi.  29, 
comp.  184).  To  this  the  sending  of  troops  to  Alexandria  (Tacitus, 
Rist.  i.  31,  70)  had  reference. 

^  As  the  aim  of  the  expedition  both  Tacitus,  Hist.  i.  6,  and  Sue- 
tonius, M'er.  19,  indicate  the  Caspian  gates,  i.e.  the  pass  of  the  Cau- 
casus between  Tiflis  and  Vladi-Kavkas  at  Darial,  which,  according 
to  the  legend,  Alexander  closed  with  iron  gates  (Plin.  J3".  JV.  vi.  11, 
Vol.  II.— 5 


66 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


assailing  Armenia  on  the  one  side  and  Media  on  the  other. 
So  little  w;is  that  expedition  of  Nero  directed  against  the 
Parthians  that  it  might  rather  be  conceived  of  as  under- 
taken to  help  them  ;  overagainst  the  wild  hordes  of  the 
north  a  common  defensive  action  was  at  any  rate  indicated 
for  the  two  civilised  states  of  the  West  and  East.  Volo- 
gasus  indeed  declined  with  equal  friendliness  the  amicable 
summons  of  his  Roman  colleague  to  visit  him,  just  as  his 
brother  had  done,  at  Eome,  since  he  had  no  liking  on  his 
part  to  appear  in  the  Roman  forum  as  a  vassal  of  the  Ro- 
man ruler  ;  but  he  declared  himself  ready  to  present  him- 
self before  the  emperor  when  he  should  arrive  in  the  East, 
and  the  Orientals  doubtless,  though  not  the  Romans,  sin- 
cerely mourned  for  Nero.  King  Vologasus  addressed  to 
the  senate  officially  an  entreaty  to  hold  Nero's  memory  in 
honour,  and,  when  a  pseudo-Nero  subsequently  emerged, 
he  met  with  sympathy  above  all  in  the  Parthian  state. 

Nevertheless  the  Parthian  was  not  so  much  concerned 
about  the  friendship  of  Nero  as  about  that  of  the  Roman 
state.    Not  merely  did  he  refrain  from  any  encroachment 

30 ;  Joseplius,  Bell.  Jud.  vii.  7,  4  ;  Procopius,  Pers.  i.  10).  Both 
from  this  locality  and  from  the  whole  scheme  of  the  expedition  it 
cannot  possibly  have  been  directed  against  the  Albani  on  the  west- 
ern shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea  ;  here,  as  well  as  at  another  passage 
{Ann.  ii.  68,  ad  Armenios,  inde  Albanos  Heniochosque),  only  the 
Alani  can  be  meant,  who  in  Josephus,  I.  c.  and  elsewhere  appear 
just  at  this  spot  and  are  frequently  confounded  with  the  Caucasian 
Albani.  No  doubt  the  account  of  Josephus  is  also  confused.  If 
here  the  Albani,  with  consent  of  the  king  of  the  Hyrcanians,  invade 
Media  and  then  Armenia  through  the  Caspian  gates,  the  writer  has 
been  thinking  of  the  other  Caspian  gate  eastward  from  Rhagae  ; 
but  this  must  be  his  mistake,  since  the  latter  pass,  situated  in  the 
heart  of  the  Parthian  kingdom,  cannot  possibly  have  been  the  aim 
of  the  Neronian  expedition,  and  the  Alani  had  their  seats  not  on 
the  eastern  shore  of  the  Caspian  but  to  the  north  of  the  Caucasus. 
On  account  of  this  expedition  the  best  of  the  Roman  legions,  the 
14th,  was  recalled  from  Britain,  although  it  went  only  as  far  as  Pan- 
nonia  (Tacitus,  Hist.  ii.  11,  comp.  27,  66),  and  a  new  legion,  the  1st 
Italic,  was  formed  by  Nero  (Suetonius,  Wer.  19).  One  sees  from 
this  what  was  the  scale  on  which  the  project  was  conceived. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  JEuphrates  Frontier. 


67 


during  the  crises  of  the  four-emperor-year,'  but  correctly 
estimating  the  probable  result  of  the  pending 
o/ve"sSan!^  dccisive  struggle,  he  offered  to  Vespasian, 
when  still  in  Alexandria,  40,000  mounted  arch- 
ers for  the  conflict  with  Vitellius,  which,  of  course,  was 
gratefully  declined.  But  above  all  he  submitted  without 
more  ado  to  the  arrangements  which  the  new  government 
made  for  the  protection  of  the  east  frontier.  Vespasian 
had  himself  as  governor  of  Judaea  become  acquainted  with 
the  inadequacy  of  the  military  resources  statedly  employed 
there  ;  and,  when  he  exchanged  this  governorship  for  the 
imperial  power,  not  only  was  Commagene  again  converted, 
after  the  precedent  of  Tiberius,  from  a  kingdom  into  a 
province,  but  the  number  of  the  standing  legions  in  Ro- 
man Asia  was  raised  from  four  to  seven,  to  which  number 
they  had  been  temporarily  brought  up  for  the  Parthian 
and  again  for  the  Jewish  war.  While,  further,  there  had 
been  hitherto  in  Asia  only  a  single  larger  military  com- 
mand, that  of  the  governor  of  Syria,  three  such  posts  of 
high  command  were  now  instituted  there.  Syria,  to  which 
Commagene  was  added,  retained  as  hitherto  four  legions  ; 
the  two  provinces  hitherto  occupied  only  by  troops  of  the 
second  order,  Palestine  and  Cappadocia,  were  furnished, 
the  first  with  one  the  second  with  two  legions.^  Armenia 

'  In  what  connection  lie  refused  to  Vespasian  tlie  title  of  emperor 
(Dio,  Ixvi.  11)  is  not  clear ;  possibly  immediately  after  his  insur- 
rection, before  he  had  perceived  that  the  Flavians  were  the  stronger. 
His  intercession  for  the  princes  of  Commagene  (Josephus,  Bell  Jud. 
vii.  7,  3)  was  attended  by  success,  and  so  was  purely  personal,  by 
no  means  a  protest  against  the  conversion  of  the  kingdom  into  a 
province. 

^  The  four  Syrian  legions  were  the  3d  Oallica,  the  6th  ferrata 
(both  hitherto  in  Syria),  the  4th  Scythica  (hitherto  in  Moesia,  but 
having  already  taken  part  in  the  Parthian  as  in  the  Jewish  war), 
and  the  16th  Flavia  (new).  The  one  legion  of  Palestine  was  the 
lOih.  fretensis  (hWcierio  in  Syria).  The  two  of  Cappadocia  were  the 
12th.  fulminata  (hitherto  in  Syria,  moved  by  Titus  to  Melitene,  Jose- 
phus, Bell.  Jud.  vii.  1,  3),  and  the  15th  ApolUnaris  (hitherto  in 
Pannonia,  but  having  taken  part,  like  the  4th  Scythica,  in  the  Par- 
thian as  in  the  Jewish  war).    The  garrisons  were  thus  changed  as 


68 


The  Euphrates  Frontier,        [Book  VIII. 


remained  a  Roman  dependent  principality  in  possession  of 
the  Arsacids,  but  under  Vespasian  a  Eoman  garrison  was 
stationed  beyond  the  Armenian  frontier  in  the  Iberian 
fortress  Harmozika  near  Tiflis,'  and  accordingly  at  this 
time  Armenia  also  must  have  been  militarily  in  the  Roman 
power.  All  these  measures,  however  little  they  contained 
even  a  threat  of  war,  were  pointed  against  the  eastern 
neighbour.  Nevertheless  Vologasus  was  after  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem  the  first  to  offer  to  the  Roman  crown-prince  his 
congratulations  on  the  strengthening  of  the  Roman  rule  in 
Syria,  and  he  accepted  without  remonstrance  the  encamp- 
ment of  the  legions  in  Commagene,  Cappadocia,  and  Les- 
ser Armenia.  Nay,  he  even  once  more  incited  Vespasian 
to  that  Transcaucasian  expedition,  and  besought  the  send- 
ing of  a  Roman  army  against  the  Alani  under  the  leader- 
ship of  one  of  the  imperial  princes  ;  although  Vespasian 
did  not  enter  into  this  far-seeing  plan,  that  Roman  force 
can  hardly  have  been  sent  into  the  region  of  Tiflis  for  any 
other  object  than  for  closing  the  pass  of  the  Caucasus,  and 
in  so  far  it  represented  there  also  the  interests  of  the  Par- 
thians.  In  spite  of  the  strengthening  of  the  military  posi- 
tion of  Rome  on  the  Euphrates,  or  even  perhaps  in  con- 
sequence of  it — for  to  instil  respect  into  a  neighbour  is  a 
means  of  preserving  the  peace — the  state  of  peace  remained 
essentially  undisturbed  during  the  whole  rule  of  the  Fla- 
vians. If — as  cannot  be  surprising,  especially  when  we 
consider  the  constant  change  of  the  Parthian  dynasts — 
collisions  now  and  then  occurred,  and  war-clouds  even 

little  as  possible,  only  two  of  the  legions  already  called  earlier  to 
Syria  received  fixed  stations  there,  and  one  newly  instituted  was 
moved  thither. — After  the  Jewish  war  under  Hadrian  the  QiYif er- 
rata was  despatched  from  Syria  to  Palestine. 

'  At  this  time  (comp.  G.  1.  L.  v.  6988),  probably  falls  also  the 
Cappadocian  governorship  of  C.  Rutilius  Gallicus,  of  which  it  is 
said  (Statins,  i.  4,  78) :  hunc  .  .  .  timuit  .  .  .  Armenia 
et  patiens  Latii  iam  pontis  Araxes,  with  reference  presumably  to 
a  bridge  structure  executed  by  this  Roman  garrison.  That  Gal- 
licus served  under  Corbulo,  is  from  the  silence  of  Tacitus  not 
probable. 


CuAP.  IX.]         The  Eujphrates  Frontier. 


69 


made  their  appearance,  tliey  disappeared  again  as  quickly.' 
Tiie  emergence  of  a  pseudo-Nero  in  the  last  years  of  Ves- 
pasian— be  it  was  who  gave  the  impulse  to  the  Revelation 
of  John — might  almost  have  led  to  such  a  collision.  The 
pretender,  in  reality  a  certain  Terentius  Maximus  from 
Asia  Minor,  but  strikingly  resembling  the  poet- emperor 
in  face,  voice,  and  address,  found  not  merely  a  conflux  of 
adherents  in  the  Roman  region  of  the  Euphrates,  but  also 
support  among  the  Parthians.  Among  these  at  that  time, 
as  so  often,  several  rulers  seem  to  have  been  in  conflict 
with  each  other,  and  one  of  them,  Artabanus,  because  the 
emperor  Titus  declared  against  him,  seems  to  have  adopted 
the  cause  of  the  Roman  pretender.  This,  however,  had 
no  consequences  ;  on  the  contrary,  soon  afterwards  the 
Parthian  government  delivered  up  the  pretender  to  the 
emperor  Domitian.^  The  commercial  intercourse,  advan- 
tageous for  both  parties  between  Syria  and  the  lower  Eu- 
phrates, where  just  then  king  Vologasus  called  into  exist- 
ence the  new  emporium  Vologasias  or  Vologasocerta,  not 
far  from  Ctesiphon,  must  have  contributed  its  part  towards 
promoting  the  state  of  peace. 

Things  came  to  a  conflict  under  Trajan.    In  the  earlier 
years  of  his  government  he  made  no  essential 
war  of^Trajan    chauge  in  castcm  affairs,  apart  from  the  con- 
version of  the  two  client  states  hitherto  sub- 
sisting on  the  border  of  the  Syrian  desert — the  Nabataean 

^  That  war  threatened  to  break  out  under  Vespasian  in  the  year  75 
on  the  Euphrates,  while  M.  Ulpius  Trajanus,  the  father  of  the  empe- 
ror, was  governor  of  Syria,  is  stated  by  Pliny  in  his  panegyric  on  the 
son,  c.  14 ;  probably  with  strong  exaggeration  ;  the  cause  is  unknown. 

-  There  are  coins  dated,  and  provided  with  the  individual  names 
of  the  kings,  of  (V)ologasus  from  the  years  389  and  390=77-78  ; 
of  Pacorus  from  the  years  389-394  =  77-82  (and  again  404-407=92- 
95);  of  Artabanus  from  the  year  392=80-1.  The  corresponding 
historical  dates  are  lost,  with  the  exception  of  the  notice  connecting 
Titus  and  Artabanus  in  Zonaras,  vi.  18  (comp.  Suetonius,  Ner.  57  ; 
Tacitus,  Hist.  i.  2),  but  the  coins  point  to  an  epoch  of  rapid  changes 
on  the  throne,  and,  apparently,  of  simultaneous  coinage  by  rival 
pretenders. 


70 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


of  Petra  and  the  Jewish  of  Caesarea  Paneas — into  admin- 
istrative districts  directly  Koman  (a.d.  106).  The  relations 
with  the  ruler  of  the  Parthian  kingdom  at  that  time,  king 
Pacorus,  were  not  the  most  friendly, '  but  it  was  only  un- 
der his  brother  and  successor  Chosroes  that  a  rupture 
took  place,  and  that  again  concerning  Armenia.  The  Par- 
thians  were  to  blame  for  it.  When  Trajan  bestowed  the  va- 
cated throne  of  the  Armenian  king  on  Axidares  the  son  of 
Pacorus,  he  kept  within  the  limits  of  his  right ;  but  king 
Chosroes  described  this  personage  as  incapable  of  gov- 
erning, and  arbitrarily  installed  in  his  stead  another  son 
of  Pacorus,  Parthomasiris,  as  king.^  The  answer  to  this 
was  the  Eoman  declaration  of  war.  Trajan  left  the  capi- 
tal towards  the  end  of  the  year  114,^  to  put  himself  at  the 

^  This  is  proved  by  th.e  detached  notice  from  Arrian  in  Suidas  (s.  v, 
cTrZ/cATj/ia)  :  6  5e  YiaKopos  6  Uapdvaluv  fiaaiKevs  Koi  &Wa  Tiva  iTnK\r]/j.ara 
eTre^epe  Tpaiapo)  tw  ySarriAe?,  and  hj  the  attention  which  is  devoted  in 
Pliny's  report  to  the  emperor,  written  about  the  year  112  {ad  Trai. 
74),  to  the  relations  between  Pacorus  and  the  Dacian  king  Dece- 
balus.  The  time  of  the  reign  of  this  Parthian  king  cannot  be  suf- 
ficiently fixed.  There  are  no  Parthian  coins  with  the  king's  name 
from  the  whole  period  of  Trajan  ;  the  coining  of  silver  seems  to 
have  been  in  abeyance  during  that  period. 

^  That  Axidares  (or  Exedares)  was  a  son  of  Pacorus  and  king  of 
Armenia  before  Parthomasiris,  but  had  been  deposed  by  Chosroes, 
is  shown  by  the  remnants  of  Dio's  account,  Ixviii.  17;  and  to  this 
point  also  the  two  fragments  of  Arrian  (16  Miiller),  the  first,  prob- 
ably from  an  address  of  a  supporter  of  the  interests  of  Axidares  to 
Trajan  :  ^  A^iSdpr]V  Se  on  apx^i-v  XP^  'Ap^uev/as,  oij  /xol  So/ce?  elval  ae  a/j.(p[- 
Xoyop,  whereupon  doubtless  the  complaints  brought  against  Par- 
thomasiris followed  ;  and  the  answer,  evidently  of  the  emperor, 
that  it  is  not  the  business  of  Axidares,  but  his,  to  judge  as  to  Par- 
thomasiris, because  he — apparently  Axidares — had  first  broken  the 
treaty  and  suffered  for  it.  What  fault  the  emperor  imputes  to  Axi- 
dares is  not  clear  ;  but  in  Dio  also  Chosroes  says  that  he  has  not 
satisfied  either  the  Romans  or  the  Parthians. 

2  The  remnants  of  Dio's  account  in  Xiphilinus  and  Zonaras,  show- 
clearly  that  the  Parthian  expedition  falls  into  two  campaigns,  the 
first  (Dio,  Ivi.  17,  1,  18,  2,  23-25),  which  is  fixed  at  115  a.d.  by  the 
consulate  of  Pedo  (the  date  also  of  Malalas,  p.  275,  for  the  earth- 
quake of  Antioch,  13  Dec.  164  of  the  Antiochene  era  =  115  a.d. 
agrees  tlierewith),  and  the  second  (Dio.  c.  26-32,  3),  which  is  fixed 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


71 


bead  of  the  Roman  troops  of  the  East,  which  were  cer- 
tainly once  more  found  in  the  deepest  degeneracy,  but 
were  reorganised  in  all  haste  by  the  emperor,  and  rein- 
forced besides  by  better  legions  brought  up  from  Pan- 
nonia.'    Envoys  of  the  Parthian  king  met  him  at  Athens  ; 

at  116  A.D.  by  the  conferring  of  the  title  Parthicus  (c.  28,  2),  took 
place  between  April  and  August  of  that  year  (see  my  notice  in  Droy- 
sen,  HeUenisrnus,  iii.  2,  361).  That  at  c.  28  the  titles  Optimus  (con- 
ferred in  the  course  of  114  a.d.)  and  Parthicus  are  mentioned  out 
of  the  order  of  time,  is  shown  as  well  by  their  juxtaposition  as  by 
the  later  recurrence  of  the  second  honour.  Of  the  fragments  most 
belong  to  the  first  campaign  ;  c.  22,  3  and  probably  also  22,  1,  2  to 
the  second. — The  acclamations  of  imperator  do  not  stand  in  the  way. 
Trajan  wa^  demonstrably  in  the  year  113  imp.  VL  ((7.  /.  L.  vi. 
960) ;  in  the  year  114  imp.  VII.  (0.  /.  L.  ix.  1558  et  al.)  ;  in  the 
year  115  imp.  IX.  {C.  I.  L.  ix.  5894  et  aL),  and  imp.  XI.  (Fabretti, 
398,  289  et  al.)  ;  in  the  year  116  imp.  XII.  {G.  L  L.  viii.  621  x. 
1634),  and  XIII.  {G.  I.  L.  iii.  D.  xxvii.).  Dio  attests  an  acclamation 
from  the  year  115  (Ixviii.  19),  and  one  from  the  year  116  (Ixviii.  28); 
there  is  ample  room  for  both,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  refer  imp. 
VII.  precisely  as  has  been  attempted,  to  the  subjugation  of  Armenia. 

^  The  pungent  description  of  the  Syrian  army  of  Trajan  in  Fronto 
(p.  206  f.  Naber)  agrees  almost  literally  with  that  of  the  army  of 
Corbulo  in  Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  35.  "  The  Roman  troops  generally 
had  sadly  degenerated  {ad  ignamam  redactus)  through  being  long 
disused  to  military  service  ;  but  the  most  wretched  of  the  soldiers 
were  the  Syrian,  insubordinate,  refractory,  unpunctual  at  the  call 
to  arms,  not  to  be  found  at  their  post,  drunk  from  midday  onward ; 
unaccustomed  even  to  carry  arms  and  incapable  of  fatigue,  ridding 
themselves  of  one  piece  of  armor  after  another,  half  naked  like  the 
light  troops  and  the  archers.  Besides  they  were  so  demoralised  by 
the  defeats  they  had  suffered  that  they  turned  their  backs  at  the 
first  sight  of  the  Parthians,  and  the  crescents  were  regarded  by  them, 
as  it  were,  as  giving  the  signal  to  run  away."  In  the  contrasting 
description  of  Trajan  it  is  said  among  other  things:  "He  did  not 
pass  through  the  tents  without  closely  concerning  himself  as  to  the 
soldiers,  but  showed  his  contempt  for  the  Syrian  luxury,  and  looked 
closely  into  the  rough  doings  of  the  Pannonians  {sed  contemnere — so 
we  must  read — Syrorum  munditias,  introspicere  Pannoniorum  in- 
scitias)  ;  so  he  judged  of  the  serviceableness  {ingeaium)  of  the  man 
according  to  his  bearing  (cwZ^t^s)."  In  the  Oriental  army  of  Severus 
also  the  "European''  and  the  Syrian  soldiers  are  distinguished 
(Dio,  Ixxv.  12). 


72 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


but  they  had  nothing  to  offer  except  the  information  that 
Parthomasiris  was  ready  to  accept  Armenia  as  a  Eoman 
fief,  and  were  dismissed.  The  war  began.  In  the  first 
conflicts  on  the  Euphrates  the  Romans  fared  worst but 
when  the  old  emperor,  ready  to  fight  and  accustomed  to 
victory,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  troops  in  the 
spring  of  115,  the  Orientals  submitted  to  him  almost  with- 
out resistance.  Moreover,  among  the  Parthians  civil  war 
once  more  prevailed,  and  a  pretender,  Manisarus,  had 
appeared  against  Chosroes.  From  Antioch  the  emperor 
marched  to  the  Euphrates  and  farther  northward  as  far  as 
the  most  northerly  legion-camp  Satala  in  Lesser  Armenia, 
whence  he  advanced  into  Armenia  and  took  the  direction 
of  Artaxata.  On  the  way  Parthomasiris  appeared  in  Ele- 
geia  and  took  the  diadem  from  his  head,  in  the  hope  of  pro- 
curing investiture  through  this  humiliation,  as  Tiridates 
had  once  done.  But  Trajan  was  resolved  to  make  this 
vassal-state  a  province,  and  to  shift  the  eastern  frontier  of 
the  empire  generally.  This  he  declared  to  the  Parthian 
prince  before  the  assembled  army,  and  directed  him  with 
his  suite  to  quit  at  once  the  camp  and  the  kingdom  ;  there- 
upon a  tumult  took  place,  in  which  the  pretender  lost  his 
life.  Armenia  yielded  to  its  fate  and  became  a  Eoman 
governorship.  The  princes  also  of  the  Caucasian  tribes, 
the  Albani,  the  Iberi,  farther  on  toward  the  Black  Sea 
the  Apsilae,  the  Colchi,  the  Heniochi,  the  Lazi,  and  various 
others,  even  those  of  the  trans-Caucasian  Sarmatae  were 
confirmed  in  the  relation  of  vassalage,  or  now  subjected  to 
it.  Trajan  thereupon  advanced  into  the  territory  of  the 
Parthians  and  occupied  Mesopotamia.  Here,  too,  all  sub- 
mitted without  a  blow ;  Batnae,  Nisibis,  Singara  came 
into  the  power  of  the  Romans ;  in  Edessa  the  emperor 
received  not  merely  the  subjection  of  Abgarus,  the  ruler 
of  the  land,  but  also  that  of  the  other  dynasts,  and,  like 

'  This  is  shown  by  the  mala  proelia  in  the  passage  of  Fronto 
quoted,  and  by  Die's  statement,  Ixviii.  19,  that  Trajan  took  Samo- 
sata  without  a  struggle  ;  thus  the  IGth  legion  stationed  there  had 
lost  it. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


73 


Armenia,  Mesopotamia  became  a  Roman  province.  Trajan 
took  up  once  more  liis  winter  quarters  in  Antioch,  where 
a  violent  earthquake  demanded  more  victims  than  the 
campaign  of  the  summer.  In  the  next  spring  (116)  Tra- 
jan, the  "  victor  of  the  Parthians,"  as  the  senate  now  sa- 
luted him,  advanced  from  Nisibis  over  the  Tigris,  and  oc- 
cupied, not  without  encountering  resistance  at  the  cross- 
ing and  subsequently,  the  district  of  Adiabene  ;  this  be- 
came the  third  new  Eoman  province,  named  Assyria. 
The  march  went  onward  down  the  Tigris  to  Babylonia ; 
Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans, 
and  with  them  the  golden  throne  of  the  king  and  his 
daughter ;  Trajan  reached  even  the  Persian  satrapy  of 
Mesene,  and  the  great  mercantile  town  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Tigris,  Charax  Spasinu.  This  region  also  seems  to 
have  been  incorporated  with  the  empire  in  such  a  way 
that  the  new  province  Mesopotamia  embraced  the  whole 
region  inclosed  by  the  two  rivers. 

Full  of  longing,  Trajan  is  said  now  to  have  wished  for 
himself  the  youth  of  Alexander,  in  order  to 

Revolt  of  Seleu-  •        <?    ii      -n       •        o      i  • 

cia,  and  its  Carry  irom  the  margin  oi  the  Persian  bea  his 
arms  into  the  Indian  land  of  marvels.  But  he 
soon  learned  that  he  needed  them  for  nearer  opponents. 
The  great  Parthian  empire  had  hitherto  scarcely  con- 
fronted in  earnest  his  attack,  and  ofttimes  sued  in  vain  for 
peace.  But  now  on  the  way  back  at  Babylon  news  reached 
the  emperor  of  the  revolt  of  Babylonia  and  Mesopotamia  ; 
while  he  tarried  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tigris  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  these  new  provinces  had  risen  against  him  ;*  the 

^  It  may  be  that  at  tlie  same  time  Armenia  also  revolted.  But 
when  Gutsclimid  (quoted  by  Dierauer  in  Biidinger's  Untersuchungen, 
i.  179),  makes  Meherdotes  and  Sanatrukios,  whom  Malalas  adduces 
as  kings  of  Persia  in  the  Trajanic  war,  into  kings  of  Armenia  again 
in  revolt,  this  result  is  attained  by  a  series  of  daring  conjectures, 
which  shift  the  names  of  persons  and  peoples  as  much  as  they  trans- 
form the  causal  nexus  of  events.  There  are  certainly  found  in  the 
confused  coil  of  legends  of  Malalas  some  historical  facts,  e.g.  the  in- 
stallation of  Parthamaspates  (who  is  here  son  of  king  Chosroes  of 
Armenia)  as  king  of  Parthia  by  Trajan  ;  and  so,  too,  the  dates  of 


74 


The  Euphrates  frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


citizens  of  Seleucia  on  the  Tigris,  of  Nisibis,  indeed  of 
Edessa  itself,  put  the  Eoman  garrisons  to  death  or  chased 
them  away  and  closed  their  gates.  The  emperor  saw  him- 
self compelled  to  divide  his  troops,  and  to  send  separate 
corps  against  the  different  seats  of  the  insurrection;  one  of 
these  legions  under  Maximus  was,  with  its  general,  sur- 
rounded and  cut  to  pieces  in  Mesopotamia.  Yet  the  em- 
peror mastered  the  insurgents,  particularly  through  his 
general  Lusius  Quietus,  already  experienced  in  the  Dacian 
war,  a  native  sheikh  of  the  Moors.  Seleucia  and  Edessa 
were  besieged  and  burnt  down.  Trajan  went  so  far  as  to 
declare  Parthia  a  Roman  vassal-state,  and  invested  with  it 
at  Ctesiphon  a  partisan  of  Rome,  the  Parthian  Parthamas- 
pates,  although  the  Roman  soldiers  had  not  set  foot  on 
more  than  the  western  border  of  the  great-kingdom. 

Then  he  began  his  return  to  Syria  by  the  route  along 
D  th  f  T  •  ■    ^-'^^^-'^  come,  detained  on  the  way  by  a 

'  vain  attack  on  the  Arabs  in  Hatra,  the  resi- 
dence of  the  king  of  the  brave  tribes  of  the  Mesopotamian 
desert,  whose  mighty  works  of  fortification  and  magnifi- 
cent buildings  are  still  at  the  present  day  imposing  in  their 
ruins.  He  intended  to  continue  the  war  next  year,  and  so 
to  make  the  subjection  of  the  Parthian s  a  reality.  But  the 
combat  in  the  desert  of  Hatra,  in  which  the  sixty -year-old 
emperor  had  bravely  fought  with  the  Arab  horsemen,  was 
to  be  his  last.  He  sickened  and  died  on  the  journey  home 
(8th  Aug.  117),  without  being  able  to  complete  his  victory 
and  to  hold  the  celebration  of  it  in  Rome ;  it  was  in  keep- 
ing with  his  spirit  that  even  after  death  the  honour  of  a 
triumph  was  accorded  to  him,  and  hence  he  is  the  only  one 
of  the  deified  Roman  emperors  who  even  as  god  still  bears 
the  title  of  victory. 

Trajan  had  not  sought  war  with  the  Parthians,  but  it 
had  been  forced  upon  him  ;  not  he,  but  Chosroes  had 

Trajan's  departure  from  Rome  in  October  (114),  of  his  landing  in  ' 
Seleucia  in  December,  and  of  bis  entrance  into  Antioch  on  the  7th 
Jan.  (115)  may  be  correct.    But,  as  this  report  stands,  the  historian 
can  only  decline  to  accept  it;  he  cannot  rectify  it. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


broken  the  agreement  as  to  Armenia,  which  during  the  last 
forty  years  had  been  the  basis  of  the  state  of 
poTiiy"''^""''*^^  peace  in  the  region  of  the  Euphrates.  If  it  is 
conceivable  that  the  Parthians  did  not  acqui- 
esce in  it,  since  the  continuing  suzerainty  of  the  Romans 
over  Armenia  carried  in  itself  the  stimulus  to  revolt,  we  must 
on  the  other  hand  acknowledge  that  in  the  way  hitherto 
followed  further  steps  could  not  be  taken  than  were  taken 
by  Corbulo  ;  the  unconditional  renunciation  of  Armenia, 
and — which  was  the  necessary  consequence  of  it — the 
recognition  of  the  Parthian  state  on  a  footing  of  full 
equality,  vlay  indeed  beyond  the  horizon  of  Eoman  policy 
as  much  as  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  similar  ideas  that 
could  not  be  thought  of  at  that  time.  But  if  permanent 
peace  could  not  be  attained  by  this  alternative,  there  was 
left  in  the  great  dilemma  of  Roman  Oriental  policy  only  the 
other  course — the  extension  of  direct  Roman  rule  to  the  left 
bank  of  the  Euphrates.  Therefore  Armenia  now  became 
a  Roman  province,  and  no  less  Mesopotamia.  This  was 
only  in  keeping  with  the  nature  of  the  case.  The  conver- 
sion of  Armenia  from  a  Roman  vassal-state  with  a  Roman 
garrison  into  a  Roman  governorship  made  not  much 
change  externally  ;  the  Parthians  could  only  be  effectively 
ejected  from  Armenia  when  they  lost  possession  of  the 
neighbouring  region;  and  above  all,  the  Roman  rule  as 
well  as  the  Roman  provincial  constitution  found  a  far  more 
favourable  soil  in  the  half-Greek  Mesopotamia  than  in  the 
thoroughly  Oriental  Armenia.  Other  considerations  fell 
to  be  added.  The  Roman  customs-frontier  in  Syria  was 
badly  constituted,  and  to  get  the  international  traffic  from 
the  great  commercial  marts  of  Syria  towards  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Tigris  entirely  into  its  power  was  an  essential  gain 
to  the  Roman  state,  as  indeed  Trajan  immediately  set  to 
work  to  institute  the  new  customs-dues  at  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris. '    Even  in  a  military  point  of  view  the  boun- 

^  Fronto,  Princ.  Mst.  p.  209  Naber:  cumpraesens  Traianus  Euplira- 
Us  et  Tigridis  portoria  equorum  et  camelorum  trib\iitaque  ordinaret, 
Ma]cer  {?)  caesus  est    This  applies  to  tlie  moment  wlien  Babylonia 


76 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


dary  of  tlie  Tigris  was  easier  of  defence  tlian  the  previous 
frontier-line  whicli  ran  along  the  Syrian  desert  and  thence 
along  the  Euphrates.  The  conversion  of  the  region  of 
Adiabene  beyond  the  Tigris  into  a  Roman  province,  where- 
by Armenia  became  an  inland  one,  and  the  transformation 
of  the  Parthian  empire  itself  into  a  Eoman  vassal-state 
were  corollaries  of  the  same  idea.  It  is  not  meant  to  be 
denied  that  in  a  policy  of  conquest  consistency  is  a  dan- 
gerous praise,  and  that  Trajan  after  his  fashion  yielded  in 
these  enterprises  more  than  was  reasonable  to  the  effort 
after  external  success,  and  went  beyond  the  rational  goal;^ 
but  wrong  is  done  to  him  when  his  demeanour  in  the  East 
is  referred  to  blind  lust  of  conquest.  He  did  what  Caesar 
would  have  done  had  he  lived.  His  policy  is  but  the  other 
side  of  that  of  Nero's  statesmen,  and  the  two  are  as  oppo- 
site, as  they  are  equally  consistent  and  equally  warranted. 
Posterity  has  justified  more  the  policy  of  conquest  than 
that  of  concession. 

For  the  moment  no  doubt  it  was  otherwise.  The  Ori- 
ental conquests  of  Trajan's  lit  up  the  gloomy 
under  Hadrian  evening  of  the  Romau  empire  like  flashes  of 
and  Pius.  lightning  in  the  darkness  of  the  night ;  but, 
like  these,  they  brought  no  new  morning.  His  successor 
found  himself  compelled  to  choose  between  completing 
the  unfinished  work  of  subduing  the  Parthians  or  allow- 
ing it  to  drop.  The  extension  of  the  frontier  could  not 
be  carried  out  at  all  without  a  considerable  increase  of 
the  army  and  of  the  budget ;  and  the  shifting  of  the  cen- 
tre of  gravity  to  the  East,  thereby  rendered  inevitable, 
was  a  dubious  strengthening  of  the  empire.  Hadrian  and 
Pius  therefore  returned  entirely  into  the  paths  of  the 
earlier  imperial   period.    Hadrian  allowed  the  Roman 

and  Mesopotamia  revolted,  while  Trajan  was  tarrying  at  the  month 
of  the  Tigris. 

'  Nearly  with  equal  warrant,  Julian  ( Caes.  p.  328)  makes  the  em- 
peror say  that  he  had  not  taken  up  arms  against  the  Parthians  be- 
fore they  had  violated  right,  and  Dio  (Ixviii.  17)  reproaches  him 
with  having  waged  the  war  from  ambition. 


CiiAP.  IX.]        The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


77 


vassal-king  of  Parthia,  Parthamaspates,  to  drop,  and  por- 
tioned liim  off  in  another  way.  He  evacuated  Assyria 
and  Mesopotamia,  and  voluntarily  gave  back  these  prov- 
inces to  their  earlier  ruler.  He  sent  to  him  as  well  his 
captive  daughter  ;  the  permanent  token  of  the  victory  won, 
the  golden  throne  of  Ctesiphon,  even  the  pacific  Pius  re- 
fused to  deliver  up  again  to  the  Parthians.  Hadrian  as 
well  as  Pius  earnestly  endeavoured  to  live  in  peace  and 
friendship  with  their  neighbour,  and  at  no  time  do  the 
commercial  relations  between  the  Roman  entrepots  on 
the  Syrain  east  frontier  and  the  mercantile  towns  on  the 
Euphrates  seem  to  have  been  more  lively  than  at  this 
epoch. 

Armenia  ceased  likewise  to  be  a  Roman  province,  and 
returned  to  its  former  position  as  a  Roman 

vlssaState.  vassal-statc  and  a  Parthian  appanage  of  the 
second  son.  ^    The  princes  of  the  Albani,  and 

the  Iberians  on  the  Caucasus,  and  the  numerous  small  dy- 

'  Hadrian  cannot  possibly  have  released  Armenia  from  the  posi- 
tion of  a  Roman  dependency.  The  notice  of  his  biographer,  c.  21  : 
Ar menus  regem  habere  permisit,  cum  sub  Traiano  legatum  habuis- 
sent  points  rather  to  the  contrary,  and  we  find  at  the  end  of  Ha- 
drian's reign  a  contingent  of  Armenians  in  the  army  of  the  governor 
of  Cappadocia  (Arrian,  c.  Alan.  29).  Pius  did  not  merely  induce 
the  Parthians  by  his  representations  to  desist  from  the  intended  in- 
vasion of  Armenia  {vita^  9),  but  also  in  fact  invested  them  with 
Armenia  (coins  from  the  years  140-144,  Eckhel,  vii.  p.  15).  The 
fact  also  that  Iberia  certainly  stood  in  the  relation  of  dependence 
under  Pius,  because  otherwise  the  Parthians  could  not  have  brought 
complaints  as  to  its  king  in  Rome  (Dio,  Ixix.  15),  presupposes  a  like 
dependent  relation  for  Armenia.  The  names  of  the  Armenian  kings 
of  this  period  are  not  known.  If  the  proximae  gentes,  with  the  rule  of 
which  Hadrian  compensated  the  Parthian  prince  nominated  as  Par- 
thian king  by  Trajan  (vita,  c.  5),  were  in  fact  Armenians,  which  is  not 
improbable,  there  lies  in  it  a  confirmation  as  well  of  the  lasting  de- 
pendence of  Armenia  on  Rome  as  of  the  continuous  rule  of  the  Ar- 
sacids  there.  Even  the  ^AvprjXios  UaKopos  ^aa-iXevs  fxeydXr}^  ^Ap/xeuias, 
who  erected  a  monument  in  Rome  (to  his  brother  Aurelius  Meri- 
thates  who  died  there  {C.  I.  Gr.  65§9),  belongs  from  his  name  to 
the  house  of  the  Arsacids.  But  he  was  hardly  the  king  of  Armenia 
installed  by  Vologasus  IV.  and  deposed  by  the  Romans  (p.  80) ;  if 


78 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


nasts  in  the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  Black  Sea  likewise 
remained  dependent.'  Roman  garrisons  were  stationed 
not  merely  on  the  coast  in  Apsarus  ^  and  on  the  Phasis, 
but,  as  can  be  shown,  under  Commodus  in  Armenia  itself, 
not  far  from  Artaxata  ;  in  a  military  point  of  view  all 
these  states  belonged  to  the  district  of  the  commandant 
of  Cappadocia.^  This  supremacy,  however,  very  indefi- 
nite in  its  nature,  seems  to  have  been  dealt  with  generally, 
and  in  particular  by  Hadrian,"  in  such  a  way  that  it  ap- 
peared more  as  a  right  of  protection  than  as  subjection 
proper,  and  at  least  the  more  powerful  of  these  princes 
did,  and  left  undone,  in  the  main  what  pleased  them. 
The  common  interest — which  we  have  formerly  brought 
out — in  warding  off  the  wild  trans-Caucasian  tribes  be- 
came still  more  definitely  prominent  in  this  epoch,  and 
evidently  served  as  a  bond  in  particular  between  Romans 
and  Parthian s.  Toward  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Hadrian 
the  Alani,  in  agreement  apparently  with  the  king  of  Iberia, 

the  latter  had  come  to  Rome  as  a  captive,  we  should  know  it,  and 
even  he  would  hardly  have  been  allowed  to  call  himself  king  of 
Great  Armenia  in  a  Roman  inscription. 

^  As  vassals  holding  from  Trajan  or  Hadrian,  Arrian  {Peripl.  c. 
15)  adduces  the  Heniochi  and  Machelones  (comp.  Dio,  Ixviii.  18  ; 
Ixxi.  14)  ;  the  Lazi  (comp.  Suidas,  sa\  AoijL(rLav6s),  over  whom  also 
Pius  put  a  king  (vita,  9) ;  the  Apsilae  ;  the  Abasgi  ;  the  Sanigae,  these 
all  within  the  imperial  frontier  reaching  as  far  as  Dioscurias= 
Sebastopolis  ;  beyond  it  in  the  region  of  the  Bosporan  vassal-state, 
the  Zichi  or  Zinchi  {ib.  c.  27). 

^  This  is  confirmed  not  only  by  Arrian,  Peripl.  c.  7,  but  by  the 
officer  of  Hadrian's  time  praepositus  numerorum  tendentium  in 
Ponto  Absaro  ( G.  L  L.  x.  1202). 

^  Comp.  p.  87,  note  1 .  The  detachment  probably  of  1000  men 
(because  under  a  tribune)  doing  garrison  duty  in  the  year  185  in 
Valarshapat  (Etshmiazin)  not  far  from  Artaxata,  belonged  to  one  of 
the  Cappadocian  legions  ((7.  /.  L.  iii.  0052). 

^  Hadrian's  efforts  after  the  friendship  of  the  Oriental  vassal- 
princes  are  often  brought  into  prominence,  not  without  a  hint  that 
he  was  more  than  fairly  indulgent  to  them  {vita,  c.  13,  17,  21). 
Pharasmanes  of  Iberia  did  not  come  to  Rome  on  his  invitation,  but 
complied  with  that  of  Pius  {cita  Iladr.  13,  21  ;  vita  Pii^  9  ;  Dio,  Ixix. 
15,  2,  which  excerpt  belongs  to  Pius) 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


79 


at  that  time  Pharasmanes  11.,  on  whom  it  primarily  de- 
volved to  bar  the  pass  of  the  Caucasus  against  them,  in- 
vaded the  southern  regions,  and  pillaged  not  only  the 
territory  of  the  Albanians  and  Armenians,  but  also  the 
Parthian  province  of  Media  and  the  Eoman  province  of 
Cappadocia,  though  matters  did  not  come  to  a  v^aging 
of  war  in  common,  but  the  gold  of  the  ruler  then  reigning 
in  Parthia,  Vologasus  III.,  and  the  mobilising  of  the  Cap- 
padocian  army  on  the  part  of  the  Romans,^  induced  the 
barbarians  to  return,  yet  their  interests  coincided,  and 
the  complaint  which  the  Parthians  lodged  in  Rome  as  to 
Pharasmanes  of  Iberia,  shows  the  concert  of  the  two  great 
powers.^ 

The  disti^rbances  of  the  status  quo  came  again  from  the 
p  th'  n  ar  P^i'thiau  sidc.  The  suzerainty  of  the  Romans 
under  Maitus  over  Armenia  played  a  part  in  history  similar 
to  that  of  the  German  empire  over  Italy ;  un- 
substantial as  it  was,  it  was  yet  constantly  felt  as  an 
encroachment,  and  carried  within  it  the  danger  of  war. 
Already  under  Hadrian  the  conflict  was  imminent;  the 
emperor  succeeded  in  keeping  the  peace  in  a  personal 
interview  with  the  Parthian  prince.  Under  Pius  the 
Parthian  invasion  of  Armenia  seemed  once  more  im- 
pending ;  his  earnest  dissuasive  was  in  the  first  instance 
successful.  But  even  this  most  pacific  of  all  emperors, 
who  had  it  more  at  heart  to  save  the  life  of  a  burgess 
than  to  kill  a  thousand  foes,  was  obliged  in  the  last  period 
of  his  reign  to  prepare  himself  for  the  attack  and  to  re- 
inforce the  armies  of  the  East.  Hardly  had  he  closed  his 
eyes  (161),  when  the  long-tlu-eatening  thunder-cloud  dis- 

^  We  still  possess  the  remarkable  report  of  the  governor  of  Cappa- 
docia under  Hadrian,  Flavius  Arrianus,  upon  the  mobilising  of  the 
Cappadocian  army  against  the  "  Scythians,"  among  his  minor  writ- 
ings ;  he  was  himself  at  the  Caucasus  and  visited  the  passes  there 
(Lydus,  de  Mag.  iii.  53). 

This  we  learn  from  the  fragments  of  Dio's  account  in  Xiphilinus, 
Zonaras,  and  in  the  Excerpts  ;  Zonarashas  preserved  the  correct  read- 
ing 'kKavoi  instead  of  'AA/3af oj  ;  that  the  Alani  pillaged  also  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Albani,  is  shown  by  the  setting  of  the  exc.  Ursin.  Ixxii. 


so 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.         [Book  VIII. 


charged  itself.  By  command  of  Vologasus  TV.  the  Persian 
general  Chosroes  ^  advanced  into  Armenia,  and  placed  the 
Arsacid  prince  Pacorus  on  the  throne.  The  governor  of 
Cappadocia  Severianns  did  what  was  his  duty,  and  led 
on  his  part  the  Roman  troops  over  the  Euphrates.  At 
Elegeia,  just  where  a  generation  before  the  king  Par- 
thomasiris,  likewise  placed  by  the  Parthians  on  the 
Armenian  throne,  had  humbled  himself  in  vain  before 
Trajan,  the  armies  encountered  each  other ;  the  Roman 
was  not  merely  beaten  but  annihilated  in  a  three  days' 
conflict ;  the  unfortunate  general  put  himself  to  death,  as 
Varus  had  formerly  done.  The  victorious  Orientals  were 
not  content  with  the  occupation  of  Armenia,  but  crossed 
the  Euphrates  and  invaded  Syria ;  the  army  stationed 
there  was  also  defeated,  and  there  were  fears  as  to  the 
fidelity  of  the  Syrians.  The  Roman  government  had  no 
choice.  As  the  troops  of  the  East  showed  on  this  occasion 
their  small  capacity  for  fighting,  and  were  besides  weak- 
ened and  demoralised  by  the  defeat  which  they  had 
suffered,  further  legions  were  despatched  to  the  East  from 
the  West,  even  from  the  Rhine,  and  levies  were  ordered  in 
Italy  itself.  Lucius  Verus,  one  of  the  two  emperors  who 
shortly  before  had  come  to  govern,  went  in  person  to  the 
East  (162)  to  take  up  the  chief  command,  and  if  he,  neither 
warlike  nor  yet  even  faithful  to  his  duty,  showed  himself 
unequal  to  the  task,  and  of  his  deeds  in  the  East  hardly 
anything  else  is  to  be  told  than  that  he  married  his  niece 
tliere  and  was  ridiculed  for  his  theatrical  enthusiasm  even 
by  the  Antiochenes,  the  governors  of  Cappadocia  and 
Syria — in  the  former  case  first  Statins  Priscus,  then 
Martins  Verus,  in  the  latter  Avidius  Cassius,^  the  best 

^  So  he  is  named  in  Lucian,  Hist,  conscr.  21  ;  if  the  same  calls 
{Alex.  27)  Othryades,  he  is  drawing  here  from  a  historian  of  the 
stamp  of  those  whom  he  ridicules  in  that  treatise,  and  of  whom 
another  Hellenised  the  same  man  as  Oxyroes  (IMst.  conscr.  c.  18). 

Syria  was  administered  when  the  war  broke  out  by  L.  Attidius 
Cornelianus  {G.  I.  Gr.  4661  of  the  year  160  ;  vita  Marci,  8;  G.  1. 
L.  iii.  129  of  the  year  162),  after  him  by  Julius  Verus  {G.  I.  L.  iii. 
199,  probably  of  the  year  103)  and  then  by  Avidius  Cassius  presum 


ClIAP.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


81 


generals  of  this  epoch — managed  the  cause  of  Borne 
better  than  the  wearer  of  the  crown.  Once  more,  before 
the  armies  met,  the  Romans  offered  peace ;  willingly 
would  Marcus  have  avoided  the  severe  war.  But  Volo- 
gasus  abruptly  rejected  the  reasonable  proposals ;  and  this 
time  the  pacific  neighbour  was  also  the  stronger.  Armenia 
was  immediately  recovered;  already,  in  the  year  163, 
Priscus  took  the  capital  Artaxata,  and  destroyed  it.  Not 
far  from  it  the  new  capital  of  the  country,  Kainepolis, 
in  Armenia  Nor-Khalakli  or  Valarshapat  (Etshmiazin) 
was  built  by  the  Romans  and  provided  with  a  strong 
garrison/  In  the  succeeding  year  instead  of  Pacorus 
Sohaemus,  by  descent  also  an  Arsacid,  but  a  Roman  sub- 
ject and  Roman  senator,  was  nominated  as  king  of  Great 
Armenia.'^    In  a  legal  point  of  view  nothing  was  changed 

ably  from  the  year  164.  The  statement  that  the  other  provinces  of 
the  East  were  assigned  to  Cassius's  command  (Philostratns,  xit.  Soph. 
i.  13  ;  Dio,  Ixxi.  3),  similarly  to  what  was  done  to  Corbulo  as  legate 
of  Cappadocia,  can  only  relate  to  the  time  after  the  departure  of  the 
emperor  Verus ;  so  long  as  the  latter  held  the  nominal  chief  com- 
mand there  was  no  room  for  it. 

'  A  fragment  probably  of  Dio  (in  Suidas,  s.v.  Mdpnos),  tells  that 
Priscus  in  Armenia  laid  out  the  Kaiv^  TroAis  and  furnished  it  with  a 
Roman  garrison,  his  successor  Martins  Verus  silenced  the  national 
movement  that  had  arisen  there,  and  declared  this  city  the  first  of 
Armenia.  This  was  Valarshapat  {OuaKapffaTrdr  or  OvaXepoKTicrrri  in 
Agathangelos)  thenceforth  the  capital  of  Armenia.  Kaivi]  iroXis  was, 
as  Kiepert  informs  me,  already  recognized  by  Stilting  as  translation 
of  the  Armenian  Nor-Khalakh,  which  second  name  Valarshapat 
constantly  bears  in  Armenian  authors  of  the  fifth  century  alongside 
of  the  usual  one.  Moses  of  Chorene,  following  Bardesanes,  makes 
the  town  originate  from  a  Jewish  colony  brought  thither  under  king 
Tigranes  VI.,  who  according  to  him  reigned  150-188  ;  he  refers  the 
enclosing  of  it  with  walls  and  the  naming  of  it  to  his  son  Valarsch 
II.  188-208.  That  the  town  had  a  strong  Roman  garrison  in  185  is 
shown  by  the  inscription  C.  1.  L.  iii.  6052. 

^  That  Sohaemus  was  Achaemenid  and  Arsacid  (or  professed  to  be) 
and  king's  son  and  king,  as  well  as  Roman  senator  and  consul, 
before  he  became  king  of  Great  Armenia,  is  stated  by  his  con- 
temporary Jamblichus  (c.  10  of  the  extract  in  Photius).  Probably 
he  belonged  to  the  dynastic  family  of  Hemesa  (Josephus,  Arch.  xx. 
8,  4,  et  al.).  If  Jamblichus  the  Babylonian  wrote  "under  him/' 
Vol.  II.— 6 


82 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


in  Armenia ;  yet  the  bonds  which  joined  it  to  Rome  were 
drawn  tighter. 

The  conflicts  in  Syria  and  Mesopotamia  were  more 
serious.  The  line  of  the  Euphrates  was  ob- 
syria  and  Mes-  stiuately  defended  by  the  Parthians  ;  after  a 
opotamia.  ]jeen  combat  on  the  right  bank  at  Sura  the 
fortress  of  Nicephorium  (Ragga)  on  the  left  was  stormed 
by  the  Romans.  Still  more  vehemently  was  the  passage 
at  Zeugma  contested  ;  but  here  too  victory  remained  with 
the  Romans  in  the  decisive  battle  at  Europus  (Djerabis  to 
the  south  of  Biredjik).  They  now  advanced  on  their  part 
into  Mesopotamia.  Edessa  was  besieged,  Dausara  not  far 
from  it  stormed ;  the  Romans  appeared  before  Nisibis  ; 
the  Parthian  general  saved  himself  by  swimming  over  the 
Tigris.  The  Romans  might  from  Mesopotamia  undertake 
the  march  to  Babylon.  The  satraps  forsook  in  part  the 
banners  of  the  defeated  great-king ;  Seleucia,  the  great 
capital  of  the  Hellenes  on  the  Euphrates,  voluntarily 
opened  its  gates  to  the  Romans,  but  was  afterwards  burnt 
down  by  them,  because  the  burgesses  were  rightly  or 
wrongly  accused  of  an  understanding  with  the  enemy. 
The  Parthian  capital,  Ctesiphon,  was  also  taken  and  de- 
stroyed ;  with  good  reason  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
165  the  senate  could  salute  the  two  rulers  as  the  Parthian 
grand-victors.  In  the  campaign  of  this  year  Cassius  even 
penetrated  into  Media  ;  but  the  outbreak  of  a  pestilence, 
more  especially  in  these  regions,  decimated  the  troops 
and  compelled  them  to  return,  accelerating  perhaps  even 

this  can  doubtless  only  be  understood  to  the  effect  that  he  composed 
his  romance  in  Artaxata.  That  Sohaemus  ruled  over  Armenia  before 
Pacorus  is  nowhere  stated,  and  is  not  probable,  since  neither  Fronto  s 
words  (p.  127  Naber),  q%iod  Sohaento  potius  quain  Vologaeso  regnum 
Armeniae  dedisset  aut  quod  Pacorum  regno  primsset^  or  those  of  the 
fragment  from  Dio  (?)  Ixxi.  1 :  Mapnos  OuTjpos  rhv  &ovKv5i5r}v  iKni/xTrei 
KarayayeTf  SJat^ov  es  'Apficp'iav  point  to  reinstatement,  and  the  coins 
with  rex  Armeniis  datus  (Bckhel,  vii.  91,  comp.  vita  Veri,  7,  8)  in 
fact  exclude  it.  We  do  not  know  the  predecessor  of  Pacorus,  and 
are  not  even  aware  whether  the  throne  which  he  took  possession  of 
was '"Vacant  or  occupied. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


83 


the  conclusion  of  peace.  The  result  of  the  war  was  the 
cession  of  the  western  district  of  Mesopotamia  ;  the  princes 
of  Edessa  and  of  Osrhoene  became  vassals  of  Kome,  and 
the  town  of  Carrhae,  which  had  for  long  Greek  lean- 
ings, became  a  free  town  under  Koman  protection/  As 
regards  extent,  especially  in  presence  of  the  complete  suc- 
cess of  the  war,  the  increase  of  territory  was  moderate,  but 
yet  of  importance,  inasmuch  as  thereby  the  Romans 
gained  a  footing  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates.  We 
may  add  that  the  territories  occupied  were  given  back  to 
the  Parthians  and  the  status  quo  was  restored.  On  the 
whole  therefore,  the  policy  of  reserve  adopted  by  Hadrian 
was  now  abandoned  once  more,  and  there  was  a  return  to 
the  course  of  Trajan.  This  is  the  more  remarkable,  as  the 
government  of  Marcus  certainly  cannot  be  reproached 
with  ambition  and  longing  after  aggrandisement ;  what  it 
did  it  did  under  compulsion  and  in  modest  limits. 

The  emperor  Severus  pursued  the  same  course  further 
and  more  decidedly.  The  year  of  the  three 
uJde^sevIrus.  emperors,  193,  had  led  to  the  war  between  the 
legions  of  the  West  and  those  of  the  East,  and 
with  Pescennius  Niger  the  latter  had  succumbed.  The 
Eoman  vassal-princes  of  the  East,  and  as  well  the  ruler  of 
the  Parthians,  Vologasus  V.,  son  of  Sanatrucius,  had,  as 
was  natural,  recognised  Niger,  and  even  put  their  troops 
at  his  disposal  ;  the  latter  had  at  first  gratefully  declined, 
and  then,  when  his  cause  took  a  turn  to  the  worse,  in- 
voked their  aid.  The  other  Roman  vassals,  above  all  the 
prince  of  Armenia,  cautiously  kept  back  ;  only  Abgarus, 
the  prince  of  Edessa,  sent  the  desired  contingent.  The 
Parthians  promised  aid,  and  it  came  at  least  from  the 
nearest  districts,  from  the  prince  Barsemias  of  Hatra  in 
the  Mesopotamian  desert,  and  from  the  satrap  of  the 
Adiabeni  beyond  the  Tigris.  Even  after  Niger's  death 
(194)  these  strangers  not  merely  remained  in  the  Roman 
Mesopotamia,  but  even  demanded  the  withdrawal  of  the 

^  This  is  shown  by  the  Mesopotamian  royal  and  urban  coins. 
There  are  no  accounts  in  our  tradition  as  to  the  conditions  of  peacQ. 


84 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


Eoman  garrisons-  stationed  there  and  the  giving  back  of 
this  territory. - 

Thereupon  Severus  advanced  into  Mesopotamia  and 
took  possession  of  the  whole  extensive  and 
MerpXmia.  important  region.  From  Nisibis  an  expe- 
dition was  conducted  against  the  Arab  prince 
of  Hatra,  which,  however,  did  not  succeed  in  taking  the 
fortified  town. ;  even  beyond  the  Tigris  against  the  satrap 
of  Adiabene  the  generals  of  Severus  accomplished  nothing 
of  importance.  ^  But  Mesopotamia,  i.e.  the  whole  region 
between  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  as  far  as  the  Chaboras, 
became  a  Roman  province,  and  was  occupied  with  two 

1  The  beginning  of  tlie  Ursinian  excerpt  of  Dio,  Ixxv.  1,  2,  is 
confused.  Ot  ^Opporjuolj  it  is  said,  Kal  ot  'ASia&rjvol  airocrrdvTis  koI 
Ni(TiPiv  iroMopKovvres  Kal  ^TTT/^eVres  vTrh  '^eovfjpov  iTrpec^ivcravro  irphs 
aurhv  ixerh.  rht/  rod  Niypov  ddvarou.  Osrlioene  was  then  Roman, 
Adiabene  Parthian ;  from  whom  did  the  two  districts  revolt  ?  and 
whose  side  did  the  Nisibenes  take  ?  That  their  opponents  were 
defeated  by  Severus  before  the  sending  of  the  embassy  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  course  of  the  narrative  ;  for  the  latter  makes  war 
upon  them  because  their  envoys  make  unsatisfactory  offers  to  him. 
Probably  the  supporting  of  Niger  by  subjects  of  the  Parthians  and 
their  concert  with  Niger's  Roman  partisan  are  now  strictly  appre- 
hended as  a  revolt  from  Severus ;  the  circumstance  that  the  peo- 
ple afterwards  maintain  that  they  had  inteuded  rather  to  support 
Severus,  is  clearly  indicated  as  a  makeshift.  The  Nisibenes  may 
have  refused  to  co-operate,  and  therefore  have  been  attacked  by  the 
adherents  of  Niger.  Thus  is  explained  what  is  clear  from  the  ex- 
tract given  by  Xiphilinus  from  Dio,  Ixxv.  2,  that  the  left  bank  of 
the  Euphrates  was  for  Severus  an  enemy's  land,  but  not  Nisibis ; 
therefore  the  town  need  not  have  been  Roman  at  that  time ;  on  the 
contrary,  according  to  all  indications,  it  was  only  made  Roman  by 
Severus. 

As  the  wars  against  the  Arabians  and  the  Adiabenians  were  in 
fact  directed  against  the  Parthians,  it  was  natural  that  the  titles 
Parthicus,  Arabicus,  and  PartJiicus  Adiabenicus,  should  on  that  ac- 
count be  conferred  on  the  emperor  ;  they  are  also  so  found,  but 
usually  Parthicus  is  omitted,-  evidently  because,  as  the  biographer 
of  Severus  says  (c.  9),  excusavit  Partliicum  nomen,  ne  Parthos  laces- 
seret.  With  this  agrees  the  notice  certainly  belonging  to  the  year 
195  in  Dio,  Ixxv.  9,  6,  as  to  the  peaceful  agreement  with  the  Par- 
thians and  the  cession  of  a  portion  of  Armenia  to  them. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier. 


85 


legions  newly  created  on  account  of  this  extension  of  ter- 
ritory. The  principality  of  Edessa  continued  to  subsist 
as  a  Roman  fief,  but  was  now  no  longer  border  territory, 
but  surrounded  by  land  directly  imperial.  The  con- 
siderable and  strong  city  of  Nisibis,  thenceforth  called 
after  the  name  of  the  emperor  and  organised  as  a  Roman 
colony,  became  the  capital  of  the  new  province  and  seat 
of  the  governor.  After  an  important  portion  of  territory 
had  thus  been  torn  from  the  Parthian  kingdom,  and 
armed  force  had  been  used  against  two  satraps  dependent 
on  it,  the  great-king  made  ready  with  his  troops  to  op- 
pose the  Romans.  Severus  offered  peace,  and  ceded  for 
Mesopotamia  a  portion  of  Armenia.  But  the  decision  of 
arms  was  thereby  only  postponed.  As  soon  as  Severus 
had  started  for  the  West,  whither  the  complication  with 
his  co-ruler  in  Gaul  recalled  him,  the  Parthians  broke  the 
peace^  and  advanced  into  Mesopotamia  ;  the  prince  of 
Osrhoene  was  driven  out,  the  land  was  occupied,  and  the 
governor,  Laetus,  one  of  the  most  excellent  warriors  of 
the  time,  was  besieged  in  Nisibis.  He  was  in  great 
danger,  when  Severus  once  more  arrived  in  the  East  in 
the  year  198,  after  Albinus  had  succumbed.  Thereupon 
the  fortune  of  war  turned.  The  Parthians  retreated,  and 
now  Severus  took  the  offensive.  He  advanced  into  Baby- 
lonia, and  won  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon  ;  the  Parthian 
king  saved  himself  with  a  few  horsemen  by  flight,  the 
crown-treasure  became  the  spoil  of  the  victors,  the  Par- 
thian capital  was  abandoned  to  the  pillage  of  the  Roman 
soldiers,  and  more  than  100,000  captives  were  brought  to 
the  Roman  slave  market.  The  Arabians  indeed  in  Hatra 
defended  themselves  better  than  the  Parthian  state  itself  ; 
in  vain  Severus  endeavoured  in  two  severe  sieges  to  reduce 
the  desert-stronghold.  But  in  the  main  the  success  of  the 
two  campaigns  of  198  and  199  was  complete.  By  the 
erection  of  the  province  of  Mesopotamia  and  of  the  great 
command  there,  Armenia  lost  the  intermediate  position 

^  That  Armenia  also  fell  into  their  power  is  indicated  bj  Herodian, 
V,  9,  2;  no  doubt  his  representation  is  warped  and  defective. 


86 


The  EujpJirates  Frontier,        [Book  VIII. 


which  it  hitherto  had  ;  it  might  remain  in  its  previous  re- 
lations and  apart  from  formal  incorporation.  The  land 
retained  thus  its  own  troops,  and  the  imperial  government 
even  paid  for  these  subsequently  a  contribution  from  the 
imperial  chest/ 

The  further  development  of  these  relations  as  neighbours 

was  essentially  influenced  by  the  changes 
governStS  which  internal  order  underwent  in  the  two 
the  E ''''^^'^  empires.    If  under  the  dynasty  of  Nerva,  and 

not  less  under  Severus,  the  Parthian  state, 
often  torn  asunder  by  civil  war  and  contention  for  the 
crown,  had  been  confronted  by  the  relatively  stable  Ro- 
man monarchy  as  superior,  this  order  of  things  broke 
down  after  Severus's  death,  and  almost  for  a  century  there 
followed  in  the  western  empire  mostly  wretched  and 
thoroughly  ephemeral  regents,  who  in  presence  of  other 
countries  were  constantly  hesitating  between  arrogance  and 
weakness.  While  the  scale  of  the  West  thus  sank  that  of 
the  East  rose.  A  few  years  after  the  death  of  Severus  (211) 
a  revolution  took  place  in  Iran,  which  not  merely,  like  so 
many  earlier  crises,  overthrew  the  ruling  regent,  nor  even 
merely  called  to  the  government  another  dynasty  instead 
of  the  decayed  Arsacids,  but,  unchaining  the  national  and 
religious  elements  for  a  mightier  upward  flight,  substituted 
for  the  bastard  civilisation — pervaded  by  Hellenism — of 
the  Parthian  state  the  state-organisation,  faith,  manners. 


'  When  at  the  peace  in  218  the  old  relation  between  Rome  and  Ar- 
menia was  renewed,  the  king  of  Armenia  gave  himself  the  pros- 
pect of  a  renewal  of  the  Roman  annual  moneys  (Dio,  Ixxviii  27 : 
Tox)  TipiMrov  rh  apyvpiou  t  Kar*  eros  irapci  rwu  'Vajp-aioov  evpicTKeTO  iXni- 
cavros  x-fi^iaOai).  Payment  of  tribute  proper  by  the  Romans  to  the 
Armenians  is  excluded  for  the  period  of  Severus  and  the  time  be- 
fore Severus,  and  by  no  means  agrees  with  the  words  of  Dio  ;  the 
connection  must  be  what  we  have  indicated.  In  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  the  fortress  of  Biriparach  in  the  Caucasus,  which 
barred  the  Dariel  Pass,  was  maintained  by  the  Persians,  who 
played  the  part  of  masters  here  after  the  peace  of  364,  with  a  Ro- 
man contribution,  and  this  was  likewise  conceived  as  payment  of 
tribute  (Lydus,  de  Mag.  iii.  52,  53  ;  Priscus,//-.  31,  Mull,). 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


87 


and  princes  of  that  province  which  had  created  the  old 
Persian  empire,  and,  since  its  transition  to  the  Parthian 
dynasty,  preserved  within  it  as  well  the  tombs  of  Darius 
and  Xerxes  as  the  germs  of  the  regeneration  of  the  peo- 
ple.   The  re- establishment  of  the  great-kingdom  of  the 
,  Persians  overthrown  by  Alexander  ensued  through  the 
emergence  of  thq  dynasty  of  the  Sassanids.    Let  us  cast  a 
glance  at  this  new  shape  of  things  before  we  pursue  further 
the  course  of  Komano-Parthian  relations  in  the  East. 
It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  Parthian  dynasty, 
although  it  had  wrested  Iran  from  Hellenism, 

The  Sassanids.  ,  t    n  -i      n  ,•  ,  i 

was  yet  regarded  by  the  nation  as,  so  to  speak, 
illegitimate.  Artahshatr,  or  in  new  Persian  Ardashir — so 
the  official  biography  of  the  Sassanids  reports — came  for- 
ward to  revenge  the  bood  of  Dara  murdered  by  Alexander, 
and  to  bring  back  the  rule  to  the  legitimate  family  and 
re-establish  it,  such  as  it  had  been  at  the  time  of  his  fore- 
fathers before  the  divisional  kings.  Under  this  legend  lies 
a  good  deal  of  reality.  The  dynasty  which  bears  the  name 
of  Sasan,  the  grandfather  of  Ardashir,  was  no  other  than 
the  royal  dynasty  of  the  Persian  province;  Ardashir's  father, 
Papak  or  Pabek,^  and  a  long  list  of  his  ancestors  had, 
under  the  supremacy  of  the  Arsacids,  swayed  the  sceptre 
in  this  ancestral  land  of  the  Iranian  nation,^  had  resided  in 
Istachr,  not  far  from  the  old  Persepolis,  and  marked  their 
coins  with  Iranian  language  and  Iranian  writing,  and 
with  the  sacred  emblems  of  the  Persian  national  faith, 
while  the  great-kings  had  their  abode  in  the  half-Greek 
borderland,  and  had  their  coins  stamped  in  the  Greek  lan- 

'  Artaxares  names  his  father  Papacus  in  tlie  inscription,  quoted  at 
p.  89,  note  2,  king  ;  how  it  is  to  be  reconciled  with  this,  that  not 
merely  does  the  native  legend  (in  Agathias  ii.  27)  make  Pabek  a 
shoemaker,  but  also  the  contemporary  Dio  i^if  in.  reality  Zonaras,  xii. 
15,  has  borrowed  these  words  from  him)  names  Artaxares  e|  acpav^v 
Koi  adS^cou,  we  do  not  know.  Naturally  the  Roman  authors  take  the 
side  of  the  weak  legitimate  Arsacid  against  the  dangerous  usurper. 

^  Strabo  (under  Tiberius)  xv.  3,  24  :  pvv  S'^Stj  Kad"  avrovs  a-wea-TU' 
res  oi  Ilepcrat  iSoctAeas  €Xov(riv  vTrrjKdovs  krepois  fiaffiK^vai^  TrpSrepov  fxev 
MaKeddffif  vvv  Se  liapQva'iois. 


88 


The  Euphrates  Frontier,        [Book  VIII. 


guage  and  after  the  Greek  style.  The  fundamental  or- 
ganisation of  the  Iranian  state-system — the  great-kingdom 
holding  superiority  over  the  divisional  kings — was  under 
the  two  dynasties  as  little  different  as  that  of  the  empire 
of  the  German  nation  under  the  Saxon  and  the  Suabian 
emperors.  Only  for  this  reason  in  that  official  version  the 
time  of  the  Arsacids  is  designated  as  that  of  the  divisional- 
kings,  and  Ardashir  as  the  first  common  head  of  all  Iran 
after  the  last  Darius,  because  in  the  old  Persian  empire 
the  Persian  province  stood  related  alike  to  the  other  prov- 
inces and  to  the  Parthians,  as  in  the  Roman  state  Italy 
stood  related  to  the  provinces,  and  the  Persian  disputed 
with  the  Parthian  the  legitimate  title  to  the  great-kingdom 
connected  dejure  with  his  province/ 

What  was  the  relation  of  the  Sassanid  kingdom  to  that 
of  the  Arsacids  in  point  of  extent,  is  a  question  to  which 
tradition  gives  no  sufficient  answer.    The  provinces  of  the 

^  When  Noldeke  says  {Tahari,  p.  449),  "The  subjection  of  the 
chief  lands  of  the  monarchy  directly  to  the  crown  formed  the  chief 
distinction  of  the  Sassanid  kingdom  from  the  Arsacid,  which  had 
real  kings  in  its  various  provinces,''  the  power  of  the  great-kingdom 
beyond  doubt  is  thoroughly  dependent  on  the  personality  of  the  pos- 
sessor, and  under  the  first  Sassanids  must  have  been  much  stronger 
than  under  the  last  decayed  Arsacids.  But  a  contrast  in  principle 
is  not  discoverable.  From  Mithradates  I.,  the  proper  founder  of 
the  dynasty,  onward  the  Arsacid  ruler  names  himself  "  king  of 
kings,''  just  as  did  subsequently  the  Sassanid,  while  Alexander  the 
Great  and  the  Seleucids  never  bore  this  title.  Even  under  them  in- 
dividual vassal-kings  ruled,  e.g.  in  Persis  (p.  87,  note  2);  but  the 
vassal  kingdom  was  not  then  the  regular  form  of  imperial  adminis- 
tration, and  the  Greek  rulers  did  not  name  themselves  according  to 
it,  any  more  than  the  Caesars  assumed  the  title  of  great-king  on  ac- 
count of  Cappadocia  or  Numidia.  The  satraps  of  the  Arsacid  state 
were  essentially  the  Marzbans  of  the  Sassanids.  Perhaps  rather  the 
great  imperial  offices,  which  in  the  Sassanid  polity  correspond  to  the 
supreme  administrative  posts  of  the  Diocletiano  Constantinian  con- 
stitution, and  probably  were  the  model  for  the  latter,  were  wanting 
to  the  Arsacid  state;  then  certainly  the  two  would  be  related  to  each 
other  much  as  the  imperial  organisation  of  Augustus  to  that  of  Con- 
stantine.  But  we  know  too  little  of  the  Arsacid  organisation  to 
affirm  this  with  certainty. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


89 


west  collectively  remained  subject  to  the  new  dynasty 
after  it  sat  firm  in  the  saddle,  and  the  claims 

Extent  of  the  i  •   i     . ,        ,  •      i    j  i      -r*  j 

sassanid  king-  which  it  sct  up  agamst  the  rtomans  went,  as 
we  shall  see,  far  beyond  the  pretensions  of  the 
Arsacids.  But  how  far  the  rule  of  the  Sassanids  reached 
towards  the  West,  and  when  it  advanced  to  the  Oxus 
which  was  subsequently  regarded  as  the  legitimate  boun- 
dary between  Iran  and  Turan,  are  matters  withdrawn  from 
our  field  of  vision.' 

The  state-system  of  Iran  did  not  undergo  quite  a  fun- 
damental transformation  in  consequence  of  the 
saslaSdl"**^"  coming  in  of  the  new  dynasty.  The  official 
title  of  the  first  Sassanid  ruler,  as  it  is  given 
uniformly  in  three  languages  under  the  rock-relief  of  Nak- 
shi-Rustam,  "  The  Mazda-servant  God  Artaxares,  king  of 
kings  of  the  Arians,  of  divine  descent,"  ^  is  substantially 

^  According  to  the  Persian  records  of  the  last  'Sassanid  period  pre- 
served in  the  Arabic  chronicle  of  Tabari  Ardashir,  after  he  has  cut  off 
with  his  own  hand  the  head  of  Ardawan  and  has  assumed  the  title 
Shahan-shah,  king  of  kings,  conquers  first  Hamadhan  (Ecbatana)  in 
Great  Media,  then  Aderbijan  (Atropatene),  Armenia,  Mosul  (Adia- 
bene)  ;  and  further  Suristan  or  Sawad  (Babylonia).  Thence  he  re- 
turns to  Istachr  unto  his  Persian  home,  and  then  starting  afresh 
conquers  Sagistan,  Gurgan  (Hyrcania),  Abrashahr  (ISTisapur  in  the 
Parthian  land),  Merv  (Margiane),  Balkh  (Bactra),  and  Charizm 
(Khiva)  up  to  the  extreme  limits  of  Chorasan.  "  After  he  had  killed 
many  people  and  had  sent  their  heads  to  the  fire-temple  of  Anahedh 
(in  Istachr),  he  returned  from  Merv  to  Pars  and  settled  in  Gor  " 
(Feruzabad).  How  much  of  this  is  legend,  we  do  not  know  (comp. 
Noldeke,  Tabaria,  p.  17,  116). 

2  The  title  runs  in  Greek  ((7.  1.  Or.  4675),  Uiff^affvos  (Mazda-ser- 
vant, treated  as  a  proper  name)  d^hs  'Kpra^ap-qs  fiaffiKevs  (iacriXiwv 
'Apiavwv  e'/c  yeuovs  Oewy  ;  with  which  closely  agrees  the  title  of  his  son 
Sapor  I.  (ib.  4676)  only  that  after  'Apiavcoj/  there  is  inserted  koI  'Am- 
piavwv,  and  so  the  extension  of  the  rule  to  foreign  lands  is  brought 
into  prominence.  In  the  title  of  the  Arsacids,  so  far  as  it  is  clear 
from  the  Greek  and  Persian  legends  of  coins,  Qe6s,  $a(n\€vs  ^anKecau, 
Q^oirdrup  (=e/c  y^vovs  OecSv)  recur,  whereas  there  is  no  prominence 
given  to  the  Arians  and,  significantly,  to  the  "  Mazda-servant "  ;  by 
their  side  appear  numerous  other  titles  borrowed  from  the  Syrian 
kings,  such  as  e7rt^aj/rjv,  St/cato?,  vtK.Woip,  also  the  Roman  avTOKpdrcop. 


90 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


that  of  the  Arsacids,  except  that  the  Iranian  nation,  as  al- 
ready in  the  old  native  regal  title,  and  the  indigenous  god 
are  now  expressly  named.  That  a  dynasty  having  its 
liome  in  Persis  came  in  lieu  of  one  originally  alien  in  race 
and  only  nationalised,  was  a  work  and  a  victory  of  national 
reaction  ;  but  the  force  of  circumstances  placed  various 
insurmountable  barriers  in  the  way  of  the  consequences 
thence  resulting,  Persepolis,  or,  as  it  is  now  called,  Ist- 
achr,  becomes  again  nominally  the  capital  of  the  empire, 
and  there  on  the  same  rock- wall,  alongside  of  the  similar 
monuments  of  Darius,  the  remarkable  statues  and  still 
more  remarkable  inscriptions  just  mentioned  proclaim  the 
fame  of  Ardashir  and  Shapur;  but  the  administration 
could  not  well  be  conducted  from  this  remote  locality,  and 
Ctesiphon  continued  still  to  be  its  centre.  The  new  Per- 
sian government  did  not  resume  the  de  jure  prerogative 
of  the  Persians,  as  it  had  subsisted  under  the  Achaeme- 
nids  ;  while  Darius  named  himself  "a  Persian  son  of  a 
Persian,  an  Arian  from  Arian  stock,"  Ardashir  named  him- 
self, as  we  saw,  simply  king  of  the  Arian  s.  "We  do  not 
know  whether  Persian  elements  were  introduced  afresh 
into  the  great  houses  apart  from  the  royal ;  in  any  case 
several  of  them  remained,  like  the  Suren  and  the  Caren  ; 
only  under  the  Achaemenids,  not  under  the  Sassanids  these 
were  exclusively  Persian. 

Even  in  a  religious  point  of  view  no  change,  strictly  so 

called,  set  in ;  but  the  faith  and  the  priests 
pShoo'd  un-  gained  under  the  Persian  great-kings  an  in- 
nids*^^  ^^^^^    fluence  and  a  power  such  as  they  had  never 

possessed  under  the  Parthian.  It  may  well  be 
that  the  twofold  diffusion  of  foreign  worships  in  the  di- 
rection of  Iran — of  Buddhism  from  the  East  and  of  the 
Jewish-Christian  faith  from  the  West — brought  by  their 
very  hostility  a  regeneration  to  the  old  religion  of  Mazda. 
The  founder  of  the  new  dynasty,  Ardashir,  was,  as  is  cred- 
ibly reported,  a  zealous  fire-worshipper,  and  himself  took 
priestly  orders  ;  therefore,  it  is  further  said,  from  that 
time  the  order  of  the  Maai  became  influential  and  arro- 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  frontier. 


91 


gant,  while  it  had  hitherto  by  no  means  had  such  honour 
and  such  freedom,  but  on  the  contrary  had  not  been  held 
in  much  account  by  the  rulers.  "  Thenceforth  all  the 
Persians  honour  and  revere  the  priests  ;  public  affairs  are 
arranged  according  to  their  counsels  and  oracles ;  each 
treaty  and  each  law-dispute  undergoes  their  inspection  and 
their  judgment,  and  nothing  appears  to  the  Persian  right 
and  legal  which  has  not  been  confirmed  by  a  priest."  Ac- 
cordingly we  encounter  an  arrangement  of  spiritual  admin- 
istration which  reminds  us  of  the  position  of  the  Pope  and 
the  bishops  alongside  of  the  Emperor  and  the  princes. 
Each  circle  is  placed  under  a  chief-Magian  (Magupat,  lord 
of  Magians,  in  new  Persian  Mobedh),  and  these  all  in  turn 
under  the  chiefest  of  the  chief  Magians  (Mobedhan-Mo- 
bedh),  the  counterpart  of  "  the  king  of  kings,"  and  now  it 
is  he  who  crowns  the  king.  The  consequences  of  this  priest- 
ly dominion  did  not  fail  to  appear  :  the  rigid  ritual,  the  re- 
strictive precepts  as  to  guilt  and  expiation,  science  resolv- 
ing itself  into  a  wild  system  of  oracles  and  of  magic, 
while  belonging  from  the  first  to  Parsism,  in  all  probabil- 
ity only  attained  to  their  full  development  at  this  epoch. 
Traces  of  the  national  reaction  appear  also  in  the  use 
of  the  native  language  and  the  native  customs, 
the  country  un-   The  largest  Greek  city  of  the  Parthian  empire, 

derthe  Sassanids.  J,  -      i        ^        •  i-  tj 

the  ancient  beleucia,  continued  to  subsist,  but 
it  was  thenceforth  called  not  after  the  name  of  the  Greek 
marshal,  but  after  that  of  its  new  master  Beh,  or  better, 
Ardashir.  The  Greek  language  hitherto  at  any  rate  al- 
ways in  use,  although  debased  and  no  longer  ruling  alone, 
disappears  on  the  emergence  of  the  new  dynasty  at  once 
from  the  coins,  and  only  on  the  inscriptions  of  the  first 
Sassanids  is  it  still  to  be  met  with  by  the  side  of,  and  be- 
hind, the  language  proper  of  the  land.  The  "  Parthian 
writing,"  the  Pahlavi,  maintains  its  ground,  but  alongside 
of  it  comes  a  second  little  different  and  indeed,  as  the 
coins  show,  as  properly  official,  probably  that  used  hither- 
to in  the  Persian  province,  so  that  the  oldest  monuments 
of  the  Sassanids,  like  those  of  the  Achaemenids,  are  tri- 


92 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


lingual,  somewhat  as  in  the  German  middle  ages  Latin, 
Saxon,  and  Franconian  were  employed  side  by  side.  After 
king  Sapor  1.  (f  272)  the  bilingual  usage  disappears,  and 
the  second  mode  of  writing  alone  retains "  its  place,  inher- 
iting the  name  Pahlavi.  The  year  of  the  Seleucids,  and 
the  names  of  the  months  belonging  to  it,  disappear  with 
the  change  of  dynasty  ;  in  their  stead  come,  according  to 
old  Persian  custom,  the  years  of  the  rulers  and  the  native 
Persian  names  of  months.'  Even  the  old  Persian  legend 
is  transferred  to  the  new  Persia.  The  still  extant  "  history 
of  Ardashir,  son  of  Papak,"  which  makes  this  son  of  a 
Persian  shepherd  arrive  at  the  Median  court,  perform 
menial  offices  there,  and  then  become  the  deliverer  of  his 
peoj)le,  is  nothing  but  the  old  tale  of  Cyrus  changed  to 
the  new  names.  Another  fable-book  of  the  Indian  Par- 
sees  is  able  to  tell  how  king  Iskander  Kumi,  i.e.  "  Alex- 
ander the  Roman,"  had  caused  the  holy  books  of  Zara- 
thustra  to  be  burnt,  and  how  they  were  then  restored  by 
the  pious  Ardaviraf  when  king  Ardashir  had  mounted  the 
throne.  Here  the  Romano-Hellene  confronts  the  Persian  ; 
the  legend  has,  as  might  be  expected,  forgotten  the  ille- 
gitimate Arsacid. 

In  other  respects  the  state  of  things  remained  essen- 
tially the  same.  In  a  military  point  of  view 
STsIsSnMs?^  in  particular,  the  armies  of  the  Sassanids  were 
certainly  not  regular  and  trained  troops,  but 
the  levy  of  men  capable  of  arms,  into  which  with  the 
national  movement  a  new  spirit  may  doubtless  have  passed, 
but  which  afterwards,  as  before,  was  based  in  the  main 
on  the  cavalry-service  of  the  nobility.  The  administration 
too  remained  as  it  was  ;  the  able  ruler  took  steps  with  in- 
exorable sternness  against  the  highway-robber  as  against 
the  exacting  official,  and,  compared  at  least  with  the  later 

'  Frawardin,  Ardhbeheslit,  etc.  (Ideler,  Chronologie,  ii.  515).  It 
is  remarkable  that  essentially  the  same  names  of  the  months  have 
maintained  themselves  in  the  provincial  calendar  of  the  Roman 
province  Cappadocia  (Ideler,  i.  440)  ;  they  must  proceed  from  the 
time  when  it  was  a  Persian  satrapy. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


93 


Arabic  and  the  Turkish  rule,  the  subjects  of  the  Sassanid 
empire  found  themselves  prosperous  and  the  state-chest  full. 

But  the  alteration  in  the  position  of  the  new  kingdom 
with  reference  to  the  Roman  is  significant, 
sians  and  the  The  Arsacids  never  felt  themselves  quite  on 
Romans.  ^  level  with  the  Caesars.  Often  as  the  two 
states  encountered  each  other  in  war  and  peace  as  powers 
equal  in  weight,  and  decidedly  as  the  view  of  two  great- 
powers  dominated  the  Roman  East  (p.  1),  there  remained 
with  the  Roman  power  a  precedence  similar  to  that  which 
the  holy  Roman  empire  of  the  German  nation  possessed 
throughout  centuries,  very  much  to  its  hurt.  Acts  of 
subjection,  such  as  the  Parthian  kings  took  upon  them- 
selves in  presence  of  Tiberius  (p.  47)  and  of  Nero  (55), 
without  being  compelled  to  them  by  extreme  necessity, 
cannot  be  at  all  conceived  of  on  the  Roman  side.  It  can- 
not be  accident  that  a  gold  coin  v/as  never  struck  under 
the  government  of  the  Arsacids,  and  the  very  first  Sassa- 
nid ruler  practised  coining  in  gold  ;  this  is  the  most  pal- 
pable sign  of  sovereignty  unrestricted  by  any  duties  of  a 
vassal.  To  the  claim  of  the  empire  of  the  Caesars  alone 
to  the  power  of  coining  money  for  universal  circulation 
the  Arsacids  without  exception  yielded,  at  least  in  so  far 
that  they  themselves  refrained  generally  from  coining,  and 
left  coinage  in  silver  and  copper  to  the  town  or  the  satraps  ; 
the  Sassanids  again  struck  gold  pieces,  as  did  king  Da- 
rius. The  great-kingdom  of  the  East  at  length  demanded 
its  full  right ;  the  world  no  longer  belonged  to  the  Ro- 
mans alone.  The  submissiveness  of  the  Orientals  and 
the  supremacy  of  the  Occidentals  were  of  the  past.  Ac- 
cordingly, in  place  of  the  relations  between  Romans  and 
Parthians,  as  hitherto,  always  reverting  afresh  to  peace, 
there  now  came  for  generations  embittered  hostility. 

After  having  set  forth  the  new  state  organization,  with 
which  the  sinkinof  Rome  was  soon  to  contend, 

Parthian  war  „ 

of  severus       we  rcsume  the  thread  of  our  narrative.  An- 

Antoninus.  .  „  ™ 

tomnus,  son  and  successor  oi  Ibeverus,  not  a 
warrior  and  statesman  like  his  father,  but  a  dissolute 


94 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


caricature  of  both,  must  have  had  the  design — so  far  as  in 
the  case  of  such  personages  we  can  speak  of  design  at  all — 
to  bring  the  East  entirely  into  the  Eoman  power.  It  was 
not  difficult  to  place  the  princes  of  Osrhoene  and  of  Ar- 
menia, after  they  had  been  summoned  to  the  imperial 
court,  under  arrest,  and  to  declare  these  lives  forfeited. 
But  on  the  arrival  of  the  news  a  revolt  broke  out  in  Ar- 
menia. The  Arsacid  prince  Tiridates  was  proclaimed  king, 
and  invoked  the  protection  of  the  Parthians.  Thereupon 
Antoninus  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  large  military  force, 
and  appeared  in  the  East  in  the  year  216,  to  put  down  the 
Armenians,  and  in  case  of  need  also  the  Parthians.  Tiri- 
dates himself  at  once  gave  up  the  cause  as  lost,  although 
the  division  sent  to  Armenia  subsequently  encountered 
vehement  resistance  there ;  and  he  fled  to  the  Parthians. 
The  Komans  demanded  his  surrender.  The  Parthians 
were  not  inclined  on  his  account  to  enter  into  a  war,  the 
more  especially  as  just  then  the  two  sons  of  king  Volo- 
gasus  v.,  Vologasus  VI.  and  Artabanus,  were  in  bitter  feud 
over  the  succession  to  the  throne.  The  former  yielded 
when  the  Roman  demand  was  imperiously  repeated,  and 
delivered  up  Tiridates.  Thereupon  the  emperor  desired 
from  Artabanus,  who  had  meanwhile  obtained  recognition, 
the  hand  of  his  daughter  for  the  express  object  of  thus 
obtaining  the  kingdom  by  marriage,  and  of  bringing  East 
and  West  under  one  rule.  The  rejection  of  this  wild 
proposal  ^  was  the  signal  for  war ;  the  Eomans  declared 
it,  and  crossed  the  Tigris.  The  Parthians  were  unpre- 
pared ;  without  encountering  resistance  the  Romans  burnt 
down  the  towns  and  villages  in  Adiabene,  and  ruthlessly 
destroyed  even  the  old  royal  tombs  at  Arbela.^    But  Arta- 

'  Such,  is  tlie  account  of  the  trustworthy  Dio,  Ixxviii.  1  ;  the 
version  of  Herodian,  iv.  11,  that  Artabanus  promised  his  daughter, 
and  at  the  celebration  of  the  betrothals  allowed  Antoninus  to  cut 
down  the  Parthians  present,  is  unauthenticated. 

^  If  there  is  any  truth  in  the  mention  of  the  Cadusians  in  the 
biography,  c.  6,  the  Romans  induced  this  wild  tribe,  not  subject  to 
the  government  in  the  south-west  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  to  fall  at  the 
same  time  upon  the  Parthians, 


CriAr.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


95 


banus  made  the  utmost  exertions  for  the  next  campaign, 
and  put  into  the  field  a  powerful  force  in  the  spring  of 
217.  Antoninus,  who  had  spent  the  winter  in  Edessa,  was 
assassinated  by  his  officers  just  as  he  was  setting  out  for 
this  second  campaign.  His  successor  Macrinus,  uncon- 
firmed in  the  government  and  held  in  little  repute,  at  the 
head,  moreover,  of  an  army  defective  in  discipline  and 
tone  and  shaken  by  the  murder  of  the  emperor,  would 
gladly  have  rid  himself  of  a  war  wantonly  instigated  and 
assuming  very  serious  proportions.  He  sent  the  prisoners 
back  to  the  Parthian  king,  and  threw  the  blame  of  the 
outrages  committed  on  his  predecessor.  But  Artabanus 
was  not  content  with  this  ;  he  demanded  compensation  for 
all  the  devastation  committed,  and  the  evacuation  of 
Mesopotamia.  Thus  matters  came  to  a  battle  at  Nisibis, 
in  which  the  Eomans  had  the  worst.  Nevertheless  the 
Parthians,  partly  because  their  levy  seeihed  as  though  it 
would  break  up,  perhaps  also  under  the  influence  of 
Roman  money,  granted  peace  (218)  on  comparatively 
favourable  terms.  Rome  paid  a  considerable  war  com- 
pensation (50,000,000  denarii),  but  retained  Mesopotamia. 
Armenia  remained  with  Tiridates,  but  the  latter  took  it  as 
in  dependency  on  the  Romans.  In  Osrhoene  also  the  old 
princely  house  was  reinstated. 

This  was  the  last  treaty  of  peace  which  the  Arsacid 
dynasty  concluded  with  Rome.  Almost  im=- 
Kmg  Ardashir.  j^^^-g^^g^y  aftcrwards,  and  perhaps  partly  in 
consequence  of  this  bargain,  which  certainly,  as  things 
stood,  might  be  looked  upon  by  the  Orientals  as  an  aban- 
donment by  their  own  government  of  the  victories  achieved, 
the  insurrection  began,  which  converted  the  state  of  the 
Parthians  into  a  state  of  the  Persians.  Its  leader,  king 
Ardashir  or  Artaxares  (a.d.  224-241)  strove  for  several  years 
with  the  adherents  of  the  old  dynasty  before  he  attained 
fall  success    after  three  great  battles,  in  the  last  of  which 

'  The  subsequently  received  chronology  puts  the  beginning  of  the 
Sassanid  dynasty  in  the  Seleucid  year  538  —  1st  Oct.  226-7  a.d.,  or 
the  fourth  (full)  year  of  Severus  Alexander,  reigning  since  spring 


96 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIIL 


king  Artabanus  fell,  tie  was  master  in  the  Parthian  empire 
proper,  and  could  march  into  the  Mesopotamian  desert  to 
subdue  the  Arabs  of  Hatra  and  thence  to  advance  against 
the  Koman  Mesopotamia.  But  the  brave  and  independent 
Arabs  defended  themselves  now  against  the  Persians  as 
formerly  against  the  Roman  invasion,  in  their  huge  walls 
with  good  success ;  and  Artaxares  found  himself  led  to 
operate  in  the  first  instance  against  Media  and  Armenia, 
where  the  Arsacids  still  maintained  themselves,  and  the 
sons  of  Artabanus  had  found  a  refuge.  It  was  not  till 
about  the  year  230  that  he  turned  against  the  Eomans,  and 
not  merely  declared  war  against  them,  but  demanded  back 
all  the  provinces  which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  king- 
dom of  his  predecessors,  Darius  and  Xerxes — in  other 
words,  the  cession  of  all  Asia.  To  emphasise  his  threaten- 
ing words,  he  led  a  mighty  army  over  the  Euphrates  ; 
Mesopotamia  was-  occupied  and  Nisibis  besieged  ;  the  en- 
emy's cavalry  appeared  in  Cappadocia  and  in  Sj^ria. 

The  Roman  throne  was  then  occupied  by  Severus  Alex- 
ander, a  ruler  in  whom  nothing  was  warlike 
ander^"^^^^  but  the  name,  and  for  whom  in  reality  his 
mother  Mamaea  conducted  the  government. 
Urgent,  almost  humble  proposals  of  peace  on  the  part  of 
the  Roman  government  remained  without  effect  ;  nothing 
was  left  but  the  employment  of  arms.  The  masses  of  the 
Roman  army  gathered  together  from  all  the  empire  were 
divided  ;  the  left  wing  took  the  direction  of  Armenia  and 
Media,  the  right  that  of  Mesene  at  the  mouth  of  the  Eu- 
phrates and  Tigris,  perhaps  in  the  calculation  that  they 
might  in  the  former  as  in  the  latter  quarter  have  the  sup- 
port of  the  adherents  of  the  Arsacids ;  the  main  army  went 
to  Mesopotamia.  The  troops  were  numerous  enough,  but 
222  (Agatliias,  iv.  24).  According  to  other  data  king  Ardasliir  num- 
bered the  year  from  the  autumn  223-4  A.d.  as  his  first,  and  so  doubt- 
less assumed  in  tliis  the  title  of  great-king  (Noldeke,  Tcibavia^  p. 
410).  The  last  dated  coin  as  yet  known  of  the  older  system  is  of  the 
year  539,  When  Dio  wrote  between  230  and  234,  Artabanus  was 
dead  and  his  adherents  were  overpowered,  and  the  advance  of  Artax- 
ares into  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia  was  expected. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


97 


without  discipline  and  tone  ;  a  Roman  officer  of  high  posi- 
tion at  this  time  himself  testifies  that  they  were  pampered 
and  insubordinate,  refused  to  fight,  killed  their  officers, 
and  deserted  in  crowds.  The  main  force  did  not  get  be- 
yond the  Euphrates,^  for  his  mother  represented  to  the 
emperor  that  it  was  not  his  business  to  fight  for  his  sub- 
jects, but  theirs  to  fight  for  him.  The  right  wing,  assailed 
in  the  level  country  by  the  Persian  main  force  and  aban- 
doned by  the  emperor,  was  cut  up.  Thereupon,  when  the 
emperor  issued  orders  to  the  wing  which  had  pushed  for- 
ward towards  Media  to  draw  back,  the  latter  also  suffered 
severely  in  the  winter  retreat  through  Armenia.  If  the 
matter  went  no  further  than  this  sorry  return  of  the  great 
Oriental  army  to  Antioch,  if  no  complete  disaster  occurred, 
and  even  Mesopotamia  remained  in  Roman  power,  this  ap- 
pears due,  not  to  the  merit  of  the  Roman  troops  or  their 
leaders  but  to  the  fact  that  the  Persian  levy  was  weary  of 
the  conflict  and  went  home.^  But  they  went  not  for  long, 
the  more  especially  as  soon  after,  upon  the  murder  of  the 
last  offshoot  of  the  dynasty  of  Severus,  the  several  army- 
commanders  and  the  government  in  Rome  began  to  fight 
about  the  occupation  of  the  Roman  throne,  and  consequent- 
ly were  at  one  in  their  concern  for  the  affairs  of  external 

^  Tlie  emperor  remained  probably  in  Palmyra ;  at  least  a  Palmy- 
rene  inscription,  C.  1.  Or.  4483,  mentions  the  eiridTjixia  deov  'AKe^dv- 
Spov. 

2  The  incomparably  wretched  accounts  of  this  war  (relatively  the 
best  is  that  drawn  from  a  common  source  in  Herodian,  Zonaras,  and 
Syncellus,  p.  674)  do  not  even  decide  the  question  who  remained 
victor  in  these  conflicts.  While  Herodian  speaks  of  an  unexampled 
defeat  of  the  Romans,  thb  Latin  authorities,  the  Biography  as  well 
as  Victor,  Eutropius,  and  Rufius  Festus,  celebrate  Alexander  as  the 
conqueror  of  Artaxerxes  or  Xerxes,  and  according  to  these  latter  the 
further  course  of  things  was  favourable.  Herodian  vi.  6,  5,  offers 
the  means  of  adjustment.  According  to  the  Armenian  accounts 
(Gutschmid,  Zeitschr.  der  deutschen  morgenldnd.  Oesellschaft^  xxxi. 
47)  the  Arsacids  with  the  support  of  the  tribes  of  the  Caucasus  held 
their  ground  in  Armenia  down  to  the  year  237  against  Ardashir;  this 
diversion  may  be  correct  and  may  have  tended  to  the  advantage  of 
the  Romans. 

Vol.  II.— 7 


98 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


foes.  Under  Maximinus  (235-238)  the  Roman  Mesopo- 
tamia fell  into  the  power  of  Ardashir,  and  the  Persians 
once  more  prepared  to  cross  the  Euphrates/ 

After  the  internal  troubles  were  in  some  measure  paci- 
fied, and  Gordian  III.,  almost  still  a  boy, 
war  Tf^Gordian.  ^^^^^  protectiou  of  the  commaudant  of 
Rome  and  soon  of  his  father-in-law  Furius 
Timesitheus,  bore  undisputed  sway  in  the  whole  empire, 
war  was  solemnly  declared  against  the  Persians,  and  in 
the  year  242  a  great  Roman  army  advanced  under  the 
personal  conduct  of  the  emperor,  or  rather  of  his  father- 
in-law,  into  Mesopotamia.  It  had  complete  success ; 
Carrhae  was  recovered,  at  Resaina  between  Carrhae  and 
Nisibis  the  army  of  the  Persian  king  Shahpuhr  or  Sapor 
(reigning  241-272),  who  shortly  before  had  followed  his 
father  Ardashir,  was  routed,  and  in  consequence  of  this 
victory  Nisibis  was  occupied.  All  Mesopotamia  was  re- 
conquered ;  it  was  resolved  to  march  back  to  the 
Euphrates,  and  thence  down  the  stream  against  the  en- 
emy's capital  Ctesiphon.  Unhappily  Timesitheus  died, 
and  his  successor,  Marcus  Julius  Philippus,  a  native  of 
Arabia  from  the  Trachonitis,  used  the  opportunity  to  set 
aside  the  young  ruler.  When  the  army  had  accomplished 
the  difficult  march  through  the  valley  of  the  Chaboras 
towards  the  Euphrates,  the  soldiers  in  Circesium,  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Chaboras  with  the  Euphrates,  did  not 
find — in  consequence,  it  is  alleged,  of  arrangements  made 
by  Philippus — the  provisions  and  stores  which  they  had 
expected,  and  laid  the  blame  of  this  on  the  emperor. 
Nevertheless  the  march  in  the  direction  of  Ctesiphon  was 
begun,  but  at  the  very  first  station,  near  Zaitha  (somewhat 
below  Mejadin),  a  number  of  insurgent  guards  killed  the 

'  The  best  account  is  furnished  by  Syncellus,  p.  683  and  Zonaras, 
xii.  18,  drawing  from  the  same  source.  With  this  accord  the  indi- 
vidual statements  of  Ammianus,  xxiii.  5,  7,  17,  and  nearly  so  the 
forged  letter  of  Gordian  to  the  Senate  in  the  Biography,  c.  27,  from 
which  the  narrative,  c.  26,  is  ignorantly  prepared  \  Antioch  was  iu 
danger,  but  not  iu  the  hands  of  the  Persians. 


Chap.  IX] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier, 


99 


emperor  (in  the  spring  or  summer  of  244),  and  proclaimed 
their  commandant,  Philippus,  as  Augustus  in  his  stead. 
The  new  ruler  did  what  the  soldiers  or  at  least  the 
guardsmen  desired,  and  not  merely  gave  up  the  intended 
expedition  against  Ctesiphon,  but  led  the  troops  at  once 
back  to  Italy.  He  purchased  the  permission  to  do  so  from 
the  conquered  enemy  by  the  cession  of  Mesopotamia  and 
Armenia,  and  so  of  the  Euphrates  frontier.  But  this  con- 
clusion of  peace  excited  such  indignation  that  the  emperor 
did  not  venture  to  put  it  in  execution,  and  allowed  the 
garrisons  to  remain  in  the  ceded  provinces.'  The  fact  that 
the  Persians,  at  least  provisionally,  acquiesced  in  this, 
gives  the  measure  of  what  they  were  then  able  to  do.  It 
was  not  the  Orientals,  but  the  Goths,  the  pestilence  that 
raged  for  fifteen  years,  and  the  dissensions  of  the  corps- 
leaders  quarrelling  with  one  another  for  the  crown,  that 
broke  the  last  strength  of  the  empire. 

At  this  point,  when  the  Roman  East  in  its  struggle  with 
the  Persian  is  left  to  its  own  resources,  it  will 
Palmyra.  appropriate  to  make  mention  of  a  remark- 

able state,  which,  created  by  and  for  the  desert-traffic, 
now  for  a  short  time  takes  up  a  leading  part  in  political 
history.  The  oasis  of  Palmyra,  in  the  native  language 
Tadmor,  lies  half-way  between  Damascus  and  the  Euphra- 
tes. It  is  of  importance  solely  as  intermediate  station 
between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Mediterranean  ;  this  sig- 
nificance it  was  late  in  acquiring,  and  early  lost  again,  so 
that  the  flourishing  time  of  Palmyra  coincides  nearly  with 
the  period  which  we  are  here  describing.  As  to  the  rise 
of  the  town  there  is  an  utter  absence  of  tradition."^    It  is 

^  So  Zonaras,  xii.  19,  represents  the  course  of  affairs  ;  with  this 
Zosimus,  iii.  33,  agrees,  and  the  later  course  of  things  shows  that 
Armenia  was  not  quite  in  Persian  possession.  If,  according  to 
Euagrius,  v.  7,  at  that  time  merely  Lesser  Armenia  remained  Ro- 
man, this  may  not  be  incorrect,  in  so  far  as  the  dependence  of  the 
vassal-king  of  Great  Armenia  after  the  peace  was  doubtless  merely 
nominal. 

^  The  Biblical  account  (1  Kings  ix.l8)  as  to  the  building  of  the 
town  Thamar  in  Idumaea  b j  king  Solojnon  has  only  been  trans- 


100 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


mentioned  first  on  occasion  of  the  abode  of  Antonius  in 
Syria  in  the  year  713,  when  he  made  a  vain 
attempt  to  possess  himself  of  its  riches ;  the 
documents  found  there — the  oldest  dated  Palmyrene  in- 
g  scription  is  of  the  year  745 — hardly  reach 

much  further  back.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
its  flourishing  was  connected  with  the  establishment  of 
tlie  Eomans  in  the  Syrian  coast-region.  So  long  as  the 
Nabataeans  and  the  towns  of  Osrhoene  were  not  directly 
Roman,  the  Eomans  had  an  interest  in  providing  another 
direct  communication  with  the  Euphrates,  and  this  there- 
upon led  necessarily  by  way  of  Palmyra.  Palmyra  was 
not  a  Roman  foundation  ;  Antonius  took  as  the  occasion 
for  that  predatory  expedition  the  neutrality  of  the  mer- 
chants who  were  the  medium  of  traffic  between  the  two 
great  states,  and  the  Roman  horsemen  turned  back,  with- 
out having  performed  their  work,  before  the  chain  of 
archers  which  the  Palmyrenes  opposed  to  the  attack.  But 
already  in  the  first  imperial  period  the  city  must  have 
been  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  empire,  because  the 
tax-ordinances  of  Germanicus  and  of  Corbulo  issued  for 
Syria  applied  also  for  Palmyra ;  in  an  inscription  of  the 
year  80  we  meet  with  a  Claudian  phyle  there  ;  from  Ha- 
drian's time  the  city  calls  itself  Hadriana  Palmyra,  and  in 
the  third  century  it  even  designates  itself  a  colony. 

The  subjection  of  the  Palmyrenes  to  the  empire  was, 
however,  of  a  different  nature  to  the  ordinary 

Military  inde-  ^    .  .  i     l^        ^•  1 

pendenceof  ouc,  auQ  Similar  lu  some  measure  to  the  client- 
Paimyra.  relation  of  the  dependent  kingdoms.  Even  in 
Vespasian's  time  Palmyra  is  called  an  intermediate  re- 
gion between  the  two  great  powers,  and  in  every  collision 
between  the  Romans  and  Parthians  the  question  was 
asked,  what  policy  the  Palmyrenes  would  pursue.  We 

ferred  to  Tadmor  by  a  misunderstanding  doubtless  old ;  at  all 
events  the  erroneous  reference  of  it  to  tliis  town  among  the  later 
Jews  (2  Chron.  viii.  4,  and  the  Greek  translation  of  1  Kings,  ix.  18) 
form  the  oldest  testimony  for  its  existence  (Hitzig,  Zeitschr.  der 
dcutschen  morgenl.  Geselhchaft,  viii.  222). 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Ewphrates  Frontier.  101 


must  seek  the  key  to  its  distinctive  position  in  the  relations 
of  the  frontier  and  the  arrangements  made  for  frontier-pro- 
tection. The  Syrian  troops,  so  far  as  they  were  stationed 
on  the  Euphrates  i,tself,  had  their  chief  position  at  Zeugma, 
opposite  to  Biredjik,  at  the  great  passage  of  the  Euphrates. 
Further  down  the  stream,  between  the  immediately  Roman 
and  the  Parthian  territory  was  interposed  that  of  Palmyra, 
which  reached  to  the  Euphrates  and  included  the  next  im- 
portant place  of  crossing  at  Sura  opposite  to  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  town  Nicephorium  (later  Callinicon,  now  er-Ragga). 
It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  guarding  of  this  impor- 
tant border-fortress  as  well  as  the  securing  of  the  desert- 
road  between  the  Euphrates  and  Palmyra,  and  also  per- 
haps of  a  portion  of  the  road  from  Palmyra  to  Damascus, 
was  committed  to  the  community  of  Palmyra,  and  that  it 
was  thus  entitled  and  bound  to  make  the  military  arrange- 
ments necessary  for  this  far  from  slight  task.'  Subse- 

^  This  is  nowhere  expressly  stated  ;  but  all  the  circumstances  tell 
in  favour  of  it.  That  the  Romano-Parthian  frontier,  before  the  Ro- 
mans established  themselves  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  was 
on  the  right  a  little  below  Sura,  is  most  distinctly  said  by  Pliny 
{H.  N.  V.  26,  89  :  a  Sara  proxime  est  Philiscum—corri-p.  p.  102,  note 
1 — oppidum  PartJiorwn  ad  Eupliratem  ;  ah  eo  Selcuciam  dierum  decern 
navigatio),  and  there  it  remained  till  the  erection  of  the  province  of 
Mesopotamia  under  Severus.  The  Palmy rene  of  Ptolemy  (v.  15,  24, 
25)  is  a  district  of  Coele-Syria,  which  seems  to  embrace  a  good  part 
of  the  territory  to  the  south  of  Palmyra,  but  certainly  reaches  as  far 
as  the  Euphrates  and  includes  Sura ;  other  urban  centres  besides 
Palmyra  seem  not  to  be  mentioned,  and  there  is  nothing  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  our  taking  this  large  district  as  civic  territory.  So  long 
in  particular  as  Mesopotamia  was  Parthian,  but  subsequently  also 
with  reference  to  the  adjoining  desert,  a  permanent  protection  of  the 
frontier  could  not  here  be  dispensed  with  ;  as  indeed  in  the  fourth 
century,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  Notitia,  Palmyrene  was  strong- 
ly occupied,  the  northern  portion  by  the  troops  of  the  Dux  of  Syria, 
Palmyra  itself  and  the  southern  half  by  those  of  the  Dux  of  Phoe- 
nice.  That  in  the  earlier  imperial  period  no  Roman  troops  were 
stationed  here,  is  vouched  for  by  the  silence  of  authors  and  the  ab- 
sence of  inscriptions,  which  in  Palmyra  itself  are  numerous.  If  in 
the  Tabula  Peutingeriana  it  is  remarked  under  Sura:  fines  exercitus 
Syriatici  et  commercium  bar baronim,  that  is,  "here  end  the  Ro- 


102 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


quently  doubtless  the  imperial  troops  were  brought  up 
closer  to  Palmyra,  and  one  of  the  Syrian  legions  was 
moved  to  Danava  between  Palmyra  and  Damascus,  and 
the  Arabian  legion  to  Bostra  ;  after  Severus  united  Meso- 
potamia with  the  empire,  even  here  both  banks  of  the 
Euphrates  were  in  the  Eoman  power,  and  the  Roman  ter- 
ritory on  the  Euphrates  ended  no  longer  at  Sura  but  at 
Circesium,  at  the  confluence  of  the  Chaboras  with  the  Eu- 
phrates above  Mejadin.  Then  Mesopotamia  also  was 
strongly  occupied  with  imperial  troops.  But  the  Meso- 
potamian  legions  lay  on  the  great  road  in  the  north  near 
Resaina  and  Nisibis,  and  even  the  Syrian  and  Arabian 
troops  did  not  supersede  the  need  for  the  co-operation  of 
the  Palmyrenes.  Even  the  protection  of  Circesium  and 
of  this  part  of  the  bank  of  the  Euphrates  may  have  been 
entrusted  to  the  Palmyrenes.  It  was  not  till  after  the  de- 
cline of  Palmyra,  and  perhaps  in  compensation  for  it, 
that  Circesium  '  was  made  by  Diocletian  a  strong  for- 

man  garrisons  and  liere  is  the  place  of  exchange  for  the  trafl&c  of  the 
barbarians,"  this  is  only  saying,  what  at  a  later  time  is  repeated  by 
Ammianus  (xxiii.  3,  7  :  Gallinicum  munimentum  robustum  et  com- 
mercandi  opimitate  gratissimum)  and  further  by  the  emperor  Hono- 
rius  {Cod.  Just  iv.  63,  4),  that  Callinicon  was  one  of  the  few  entre- 
pots devoted  to  the  Romano-barbarian  frontier-traffic  ;  but  it  does  not 
at  all  follow  from  this  as  regards  the  time  when  the  Tabula  originated, 
that  these  imperial  troops  were  stationed  there,  since  in  fact  the  Pal- 
myrenes in  general  belonged  -to  the  Syrian  army  and  might  be 
thought  of  in  using  the  expression  exercitus  Syriaticus.  The  city 
must  have  furnished  a  force  of  its  own  in  a  way  similar  to  that  of 
the  princes  of  Numidia  and  of  Panticapaeum.  By  this  means  alone 
we  come  to  understand  as  well  the  rejection  of  the  troops  of  Anto- 
nius  as  the  attitude  of  the  Palmyrenes  in  the  troubles  of  the  third 
century,  and  not  less  the  emergence  of  the  numeri  Palmyrenorum 
among  the  military  novelties  of  this  epoch. 

'  Ammianus,  xxiii.  5,  2 :  Cercusium  .  .  .  Diodetianus  exiguum, 
ante  hoc  et  suspectum  muris  turribusque  circumdedit  celsis,  .  .  .  ne 
mgarentur  per  Syriam  Persae  ita  ut  paucis  ante  annis  cum  magnis 
provinciarum  contigerat  damnis.  Comp.  Procopius  de  aed.  ii.  6. 
Perhaps  this  place  is  not  different  from  the  ^a\-ya  or  iaKiya  of  Isi- 
dorus  of  Charax  {mans.  Parth.  1;  Steplianus  Byz.  s.'c.)  and  the 
Philiscum  of  Pliny  (p.  101,  note). 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


103 


tress,  wliich  thenceforth  was  here  the  basis  of  frontier- 
defence. 

The  traces  of  this  distinctive  position  of  Palmyra  are 
demonstrable  also  in  its  institutions.    The  ab- 

Administrative  i     /.   n  5  ji      -r»  i 

independence  scncc  oi  the  cmperor  s  name  on  the  Jr'almy- 
of  Palmyra.  coins  is  probablj  to  be  explained  not 

from  it,  but  from  the  fact  that  the  community  issued  al- 
most nothing  but  small  money.  But  the  treatment  of  the 
language  speaks  clearly.  From  the  rule  elsewhere  fol- 
lowed almost  without  exception  by  the  Romans — of  allow- 
ing in  their  immediate  territory  only  the  use  of  the  two 
imperial  languages — Palmyra  was  excepted.  Here  that 
language,  which  in  the  rest  of  Syria  and  not  less  after  the 
exile  in  Judaea  was  the  usual  medium  of  private  inter- 
course, but  was  restricted  to  the  latter,  maintained  its 
ground  in  public  use,  so  long  as  the  city  existed  at  all. 
Essential  differences  cannot  be  shown  between  the  Palmy- 
rene  Syriac  and  that  of  the  other  regions  just  named  ;  the 
proper  names,  having  not  seldom  an  Arabic  or  Jewish,  or 
even  Persian  form,  show  the  striking  mixture  of  peoples, 
and  numerous  words  borrowed  from  Greek  or  Latin 
show  the  influence  of  the  Occidentals.  It  becomes  subse- 
quently a  rule  to  append  to  the  Syrian  text  a  Greek  one, 
which  in  a  decree  of  the  Palmyrene  common-council  of 
the  year  137  is  placed  after  the  Palmyrene,  but  afterwards 
usually  precedes  it ;  but  mere  Greek  inscriptions  of  native 
Palmyrenes  are  rare  exceptions.  Even  in  votive  inscrip- 
tions which  Palmyrenes  set  up  to  their  native  gods  in  Eome,' 
and  in  tombs  of  Palmyrene  soldiers  that  died  in  Africa  or 
Britain,  the  Palmyrene  rendering  is  added.    So  too  in 


'  Of  tlie  seven  dedications,  hitherto  found  outside  of  Palmyra,  to 
the  Palmyrene  Malach  Belos  the  three  brought  to  light  in  Rome 
(a  /.  L.  vi.  51,  710  ;  G.  1.  Gr.  6015)  have  along  with  a  Greek  or 
Latin  also  a  Palmyrene  text,  two  African  {G.  L  L.  viii.  2497,  8795 
add. )  and  two  Dacian  {Ardi.  epig.  Mitth.  aus  Oesterreich^  vi.  109, 
111)  merely  Latin.  One  of  the  latter  was  set  up  by  P.  Aelius 
Theimes  a  duoviraUs  of  Sarmizegetusa,  evidently  a  native  of  Pal- 
myra dm  pairiis  Malagbel  ei  Bchellahaynon  et  Benefal  et  Manavat. 


104 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.       [Book  VIII. 


Palmyra — while  the  Eoman  year  was  made  the  basis  of 
dating  as  .in  the  rest  of  the  empire — the  names  of  the 
months  were  not  the  Macedonian  officially  received  in 
Roman  Syria,  but  those  which  were  current  in  it  in  com- 
mon intercourse  at  least  among  the  Jews,  and  were  in  use, 
moreover,  among  the  Aramaean  tribes  living  under  Assyr-  , 
ian  and  subsequently  Persian  rule.^ 

The  municipal  organisation  was  moulded  in  the  main 
after  the  pattern  of  the  Greek  municipality  of 
miSstrates.  the  Romau  empire  ;  the  designations  for  mag- 
istrates and  counciP  and  even  those  of  the 
colony  are  in  the  Palmyrene  texts  retained  for  the  most 
part  from  the  imperial  languages.  But  in  administration 
the  district  retained  a  greater  independence  than  is  else- 
where assigned  to  urban  communities.  Alongside  of  the 
civic  officials  we  find,  at  least  in  the  third  century,  the 
city  of  Palmyra  with  its  territory  under  a  separate  head- 
man "  of  senatorial  rank  and  Roman  appointment,  but 
chosen  from  the  family  of  most  repute  in  the  place ; 
Septimius  Hairanes,  son  of  Odaenathus,  is  substantially  a 
prince  of  the  Palmyrenes,'"  who  was  doubtless  not  other- 

'  Whence  these  names  of  tlie  months  come,  is  not  clear  ;  they  first 
appear  in  the  Assyrian  cuneiform  writing,  hut  are  not  of  Assyrian 
origin.  In  consequence  of  the  Assyrian  rule  they  then  remained  in 
use  within  the  sphere  of  the  Syrian  language.  Variations  are  found ; 
the  second  month,  the  Dios  of  the  Greek-speaking  Syrians,  our 
Novemher,  is  called  among  the  Jews  Markeshvan,  among  the  Pal- 
myrenes  Kanun  (Waddington,  n.  25745).  We  may  add  that  these 
names  of  the  months,  so  far  as  they  came  to  be  applied  within  the 
Roman  empire,  are  adapted,  like  the  Macedonian,  to  the  Julian 
calendar,  so  that  only  the  designation  of  the  month  differs,  the 
year-heginning  (1  Oct.)  of  the  Syro-Roman  year  finds  uniformly 
application  to  the  Greek  as  to  the  Aramaen  appellations. 

E.g.  Archon,  Grammateus,  Proedros,  Syndikos,  Dekaprotoi. 

3  This  is  shown  by  the  inscription  of  Palmyra  G.  I.  Gr.  4491, 
4492  —  Waddington  2600  =  Vogue,  Insc.  sem.  Palm.  22)  set  up  to 
this  Hairanes  in  the  year  251  by  a  soldier  of  the  legion  stationed  in 
Arabia.  His  title  is  in  Greek  o  Kau-n-pnraros  avvKXy]TiK6s  e|a[pxos 
{=prmceps)  Ua\inv]p-npa>u ,  in  Palmyrene  "illustrious  senator,  head 
of  Tadmor."  The  epitaph  (G.  I.  Gr.  4507:=  Waddington  2621  = 
Vogue,  21)  of  the  father  of  Hairanes,  Septimios  Odaenathos,  son  of 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier.  105 


wise  dependent  on  the  legate  of  Syria  than  were  the 
client-princes  on  the  neighbouring  imperial  governors 
generally.  A  few  years  later  we  meet  with  his  son,^  Sep- 
timius  Odaenathus,  in  the  like  position — indeed  even 
raised  in  rank — df  hereditary  prince.^  Nevertheless  Pal- 
myra formed  a  customs-district  apart,  in  which  the  cus- 
toms were  leased  on  account,  not  of  the  state,  but  of  the 
community.^ 

Hairanes,  grandson  of  Vaballathos,  great-grandson  of  Nassoros, 
gives  to  him  also  senatorial  rank. 

'  Certainly  the  father  of  this  Odaenathus  is  nowhere  named  ;  but 
it  is  as  good  as  certain  that  he  was  the  son  of  the  Hairanes  just 
named,  and  bore  the  name  of  his  grandfather.  Zosimus,  too,  i.  39, 
terms  him  a  Palmyrene  distinguished  from  the  days  of  his  fore- 
fathers by  the  government  (^i/Spa  TlaAfivprjt/hu  koI  e/c  irpoySvwu  rrjs 
TTapa  Twu  fia(n\€uv  a^icadfUTa  tIjUtjs). 

^  In  the  inscription  Waddington  2603  =  Vogue  23,  which  the 
guild  of  gold  and  silver  workers  of  Palmyra  set  up  in  the  year  257 
to  Odaenathus  he  is  called  6  AaixTrpoTaros  vTrariKSs,  and  so  vir  con- 
sidaris,  and  in  Greek  SerrTroTr??,  in  Syriac  mdran.  The  former 
designation  is  not  a  title  of  office,  but  a  statement  of  the  class  in 
which  he  ranked ;  so  vir  consularis  stands  not  unf requently  after 
the  name  quite  like  mr  darissimus  (0.  I.  L.  x.  p.  1117  and  else- 
where), and  6  Xa/uLTrphraTos  vnaTinS'i  is  found  alongside  of  and  before 
official  titles  of  various  kinds,  e.g.  that  of  the  proconsul  of  Africa 
{G.  I.  Gr.  2979,  where  AajuLirpSraros  is  absent),  of  the  imperial 
legate  of  Pontus  and  Bithynia  {G.  I.  Gr.  3747,  3748,  3771)  and  of 
Palestine  {G.  I.  Gr.  4151),  of  the  governor  of  Lycia  and  Pamphylia 
{G.  I.  Gr.  4272);  it  is  only  in  the  age  after  Constantine  that  it  is 
in  combination  with  the  name  of  the  province  employed  as  an 
official  title  {e.g.  G.  I.  Gr.  2596,  4266e).  From  this,  therefore,  no 
inference  is  to  be  drawn  as  to  the  legal  position  of  Odaenathus. 
Likewise,  in  the  Syriac  designation  of  "lord,"  we  may  not  find 
exactly  the  ruler  ;  it  is  also  given  to  a  procurator  (Waddington  2606 
= Vogue  25). 

^  Syria  in  the  imperial  period  formed  an  imperial  customs-dis- 
trict of  its  own,  and  the  imperial  dues  were  levied  not  merely  on 
the  coast  but  also  at  the  Euphrates-frontier,  in  particular  at 
Zeugma.  Hence  it  necessarily  follows  that  farther  to  the  south, 
where  the  Euphrates  was  no  longer  in  the  Roman  power,  similar 
dues  were  established  on  the  Roman  eastern  frontier.  Now  a  de- 
cree of  the  council  of  Palmyra  of  the  year  137  informs  us  that  the 
city  and  its  territory  formed  a  special  customs-district,  and  the  dues 


The  Euj)hrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII, 


The  importance  of  Palmyra  depended  on  tlie  caravan- 
traffic.    The  heads  of  the  caravans  (crwoSiap- 

Commercial  po-         \        ^  •  ^  >     e  x^i  i. 

RitionofPal-  ')(a.i),  which  Went  irom  Palmyra  to  the  great 
entrepots  on  the  Euphrates  to  Vologasias,  the 
already  mentioned  Parthian  foundation  not  far  from  the 
site  of  the  ancient  Babylon,  and  to  Porath  or  Charax 
Spasinu,  twin  towns  at  its  mouth,  close  on  the  Persian 
Gulf,  appear  in  the  inscriptions  as  the  most  respected  city- 
burgesses,'  and  fill  not  merely  the  magistracies  of  their 

were  levied  for  tlie  benefit  of  tlie  town  upon  all  goods  imported  or 
exported.  That  tliis  territory  lay  beyond  the  imperial  dues  is  prob- 
able— first,  because,  if  there  had  existed  an  imperial  customs-line 
enclosing  the  Palmyrene  territory,  the  mention  of  it  could  not  well 
be  omitted  in  that  detailed  enactment  ;  secondly,  because  a  com- 
munity of  the  empire  enclosed  by  the  imperial  customs-lines  would 
hardly  have  had  the  right  of  levying  dues  at  the  boundary  of  its 
territory  to  this  extent.  We  shall  thus  have  to  discern  in  the  levy- 
ing of  dues  by  the  community  of  Palmyra  the  same  distinctive 
position  which  must  be  attributed  to  it  in  a  military  point  of  view. 
Perhaps,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  an  impost  laid  on  it  for  the 
benefit  of  the  imperial  exchequer,  possibly  the  delivering  up  of 
a  quota  of  the  produce  of  the  dues  or  a  heightened  tribute.  Ar- 
rangements similar  to  those  for  Palmyra  may  have  existed  also  for 
Petra  and  Bostra  ;  for  goods  were  certainly  not  admitted  here  free 
of  dues,  and  according  to  Pliny,  //.  N.  xii.  14,  65,  imperial  dues 
from  the  Arabic  frankincense  exported  by  way  of  Gaza  seem  only 
to  have  been  levied  at  Gaza  on  the  coast.  The  indolence  of  Roman 
administration  was  stronger  than  its  fiscal  zeal ;  it  may  frequently 
have  devolved  the  inconvenient  tolls  of  the  land-frontier  away 
from  itself  on  the  communities. 

'  These  caravans  {(xwoUai)  appear  on  the  Palmyrene  inscriptions 
as  fixed  companies,  which  undertake  the  same  journeys  beyond 
doubt  at  definite  intervals  under  their  foreman  {a-wo^iapx'r]^,  Wad- 
dington,  2589,  2590  2596)  ;  thus  a  statue  is  erected  to  such  a  one  by 
"  the  merchants  who  went  down  with  him  to  Vologasias  "  {ol  avv 
auTw  KaTeXQovns  els  ''OXoyeaidBa  e/xiropoi,  Waddington,  2599  of  the 
year  247),  or  "up  from  Forath  (comp.  Pliny,  II.  iV.  vi.  28,  145)  and 
Vologasias"  {oi  awai'a^duTes  fJ.er  avrov  e/j-Tropoi  cnro  ^opddov  Ke  'OXoya- 
(Tidhos,  Waddington,  2589  of  the  year  142),  or  "up  from  Spasinu 
Charax  "(oi  ahv  a  iT(^  avaSdvTfiS  airh  'S.-iraaivou  Xccpa/cos,  Waddington, 
2596  of  the  year  193;  similarly  2590  of  the  year  155).  All  these 
conductors  are  men  of  standing  furnished  with  lists  of  ancestors  ; 
their  honorar}'  monuments  stand  in  the  great  colonnade  beside  those 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


107 


home,  but  in  part  also  imperial  offices  ;  the  great  traders 
(apx^f^-n-opoi)  and  the  guild  of  workers  in  gold  and  silver 
testify  to  the  importance  of  the  city  for  trade  and  manu- 
factures, and  nofj  less  is  its  prosperity  attested  by  the 
still  standing  temples  of  the  city  and  the  long  colonnades 
of  the  city  halls,  as  well  as  the  massy  and  richly  decorated 
tombs.  The  climate  is  little  favourable  to  agriculture — 
the  place  lies  near  to  the  northern  limit  of  the  date  palm, 
and  does  not  derive  its  Greek  name  from  it — but  there 
are  found  in  the  environs  the  remains  of  great  subterra- 
nean aqueducts  and  huge  water-reservoirs  artificially  con- 
structed of  square  blocks,  with  the  help  of  which  the 
ground,  now  destitute  of  all  vegetation,  must  once  upon 
a  time  have  artificially  developed  a  rich  culture.  This 
riches,  this  national  idiosyncrasy  not  quite  set  aside  even 
under  Roman  rule,  and  this  administrative  independence, 
explain  in  some  measure  the  part  of  Palmyra  about  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  in  the  great  crisis,  to  the 
presentation  of  which  we  now  return. 

After  the  emperor  Decius  had  fallen  in  the  year  251 
when  fip'hting  against  the  Goths  in  Europe, 

Capture  of  the  ^  .      o..  • 

emperor  Vale-  the  government  01  the  empire,  ii  at  that  time 
there  was  still  an  empire  and  a  government  at 
all,  left  the  East  entirely  to  its  fate.  While  the  pirates 
from  the  Black  Sea  ravaged  the  coasts  far  and  wide  and 
even  the  interior,  the  Persian  king  Sapor  again  assumed 
the  aggressive.  While  his  father  had  been  content  with 
calling  himself  lord  of  Iran,  he  first  designated  himself — 
as  did  the  succeeding  rulers  after  his  example — the  great- 

of  queen  Zenobia  and  her  family.  Specially  remarkable  is  one  of 
them,  Septimius  Verodes,  of  whom  there  exists  a  series  of  honorary 
pediments  of  the  years  262-267  (Waddington,  2606-2610) ;  he  too, 
was  a  caravan-head  (aj/aKu/xiaraura  ras  (Xuuo^las  eic  TMV  i^lccv  KoL  fxaprvp-f]- 
eiuTu  vTvh  roov  apx^uTTopcav,  Waddington,  n.  2606  a  ;  consequently  he 
defrayed  the  costs  of  the  journey  back  for  the  whole  company,  and 
was  on  account  of  this  liberality  publicly  praised  by  the  wholesale 
traders).  But  he  filled  not  merely  the  civic  offices  of  strategos  and 
agoranomos,  he  was  even  imperial  procurator  of  the  second  clasiB 
(ducenarius)  and  argapetes  (p.  113,  note). 


108 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


king  of  Iran  and  non-Iran  (p.  89,  note),  and  thereby  laid 
down,  as  it  were,  the  programme  of  his  policy  of  con- 
quest. In  the  year  252  or  253  he  occupied  Armenia,  or  it 
submitted  to  him  voluntarily,  beyond  doubt  carried  like- 
wise away  by  that  resuscitation  of  the  old  Persian  faith 
and  Persian  habits  ;  the  legitimate  king  Tiridates  sought 
shelter  with  the  Romans,  the  other  members  of  the  royal 
house  placed  themselves  under  the  banners  of  the  Per- 
sian.^ After  Armenia  thus  had  become  Persian,  the  hosts 
of  the  Orientals  overran  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Cappa- 
docia  ;  they  laid  waste  the  level  country  far  and  wide,  but 
the  inhabitants  of  the  larger  towns,  first  of  all  the  brave 
Edessenes,  repelled  the  attack  of  enemies  little  equipped 
for  besieging.  In  the  West,  meanwhile  at  least,  a  recog- 
nised government  had  been  set  up.  The  emperor  Pub- 
lius  Licinius  Valerianus,  an  honest  and  well-disposed 
ruler,  but  not  resolute  in  character  or  equal  to  dealing  with 
difficulties,  appeared  at  length  in  the  East  and  resorted 
to  Antioch.  Thence  he  went  to  Cappadocia,  which  the 
Persian  roving  hordes  evacuated.  But  the  plague  deci- 
mated his  army,  and  he  delayed  long  to  take  up  the  de- 
cisive struggle  in  Mesopotamia.  At  length  he  resolved  to 
bring  help  to  the  sorely  pressed  Edessa,  and  crossed  the 
Euphrates  with  his  forces.  There,  not  far  from  Edessa, 
occurred  the  disaster  which  had  nearly  the  same  signifi- 
cance for  the  Eoman  East  as  the  victory  of  the  Goths  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube  and  the  fall  of  Decius — the 
capture  of  the  emperor  Valerianus  by  the  Persians  (end 
of  259  or  beginning  of  260).^    As  to  the  more  precise 

^  According  to  the  Greek  account  (Zonaras,  xii.  21)  king  Tiridates 
takes  refuge  with  the  Romans,  but  his  sons  take  the  side  of  the 
Persians  ;  according  to  the  Armenian,  king  Chosro  is  murdered  by 
his  brethren,  and  Chosro  s  son,  Tiridates,  fled  to  the  Romans  (Gut- 
schmid,  Zeitschrift  der  deutschen  morgenl.  Oesellsch.  xxxi.  48).  Per- 
haps the  latter  is  to  be  preferred. 

^  The  only  fixed  chronological  basis  is  furnished  by  the  Alexan- 
drian coins,  according  to  which  Valerian  was  captured  between  29th 
August  259  and  28th  August  260.  That  after  his  capture  he  was  no 
longer  regarded  as  emperor,  is  easily  explained,  seeing  that  the  Per- 


Chap,  IX.] 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier. 


109 


circumstances  the  accounts  are  conflicting.  According  to 
one  version,  when  he  was  attempting  with  a  weak  band 
to  reach  Edessa,  he  was  surrounded  and  captured  by 
the  far  superior  Persians.  According  to  another,  he,  al- 
though defeated,  reached  the  beleaguered  town,  but,  as  he 
brought  no  sufficient  help  and  the  provisions  came  to  an 
end  only  the  more  rapidly,  he  dreaded  the  outbreak  of 
a  military  insurrection,  and  therefore  dehvered  himself 
voluntarily  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  According  to  a 
third,  he,  reduced  to  extremities,  entered  into  negotiations 
with  Sapor  ;  when  the  Persian  king  declined  to  treat  with 
envoys,  he  appeared  personally  in  the  enemy's  camp,  and 
was  perfidiously  made  a  prisoner. 

Whichever  of  these  narratives  may  come  nearest  to  the 

truth,  the  emperor  died  in  the  captivity  of  the 
oiSfan'SipiJr.  Gucmy,'  and  the  consequence  of  this  disaster 

was  the  forfeiture  of  the  East  to  the  Persians. 
Above  all  Antioch,  the  largest  and  richest  city  of  the  East, 
fell  for  the  first  time  since  it  was  Roman  into  the  power  of 
the  public  foe,  and  in  good  part  through  the  fault  of  its 
own  citizens.  Mareades,  an  Antiochene  of  rank,  whom  the 
council  had  expelled  for  the  embezzlement  of  public  mon- 
ies, brought  the  Persian  army  to  his  native  town  ;  whether 
it  be  a  fable  that  the  citizens  were  surprised  in  the  theatre 
itself  by  the  advancing  foes,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  not 
merely  offered  no  resistance,  but  that  a  great  part  of  the 
lower  population,  partly  in  consideration  of  Mareades, 
partly  in  the  hope  of  anarchy  and  pillage,  saw  with  pleas- 
ure the  entrance  of  the  Persians.  Thus  the  city  with  all  its 
treasures  became  the  prey  of  the  enemy,  and  fearful  rav- 
ages were  committed  in  it ;  Mareades  indeed  also  was — we 

sians  compelled  liim  in  their  interests  to  issne  orders  to  his  former 
subjects  (continuation  of  Dio,  fr.  3). 

^  The  better  accounts  simply  know  the  fact  that  Valerian  died  in 
Persian  capitivity.  That  Sapor  used  him  as  a  footstool  in  mounting 
his  horse  (Lactantius,  de  Mort.  persec.  5  ;  Orosius,  vii.  22,  4  ;  Victor, 
Ep.  33),  and  finally  caused  him  to  be  flayed  (Lactantius,  I.  c.  ;  Aga- 
thias,  iv.  23  ;  Cedrenus,  p.  454)  is  a  Christian  invention — a  requital 
for  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  ordered  by  Valerian. 


110 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


know  not  why — condemned  by  king  Sapor  to  perish  by 
fire/  Besides  numerous  smaller  places,  the  capitals  of 
Cilicia  and  Cappadocia — Tarsus  and  Caesarea,  the  latter, 
it  is  stated,  a  town  of  400,000  inhabitants — suffered  the 
same  fate.  Endless  trains  of  captives,  who  were  led  like 
cattle  once  a  day  to  the  watering,  covered  the  desert-routes 
of  the  East.  On  the  return  home  the  Persians,  it  is  alleged, 
in  order  the  more  rapidly  to  cross  a  ravine,  filled  it  up  with 
the  bodies  of  the  captives  whom  they  brought  with  them. 
It  is  more  credible  that  the  great  "  imperial  dam  "  (Bend- 
i-Kaiser)  at  Sostra  (Shuster)  in  Susiana,  by  which  still  at 
the  present  day  the  water  of  the  Pasitigris  is  conveyed  to 
the  higher-lying  regions,  was  built  by  these  captives  ;  as 
indeed  the  emperor  Nero's  architects  had  helped  to  build 
the  capital  of  Armenia,  and  generally  in  this  domain  the 
Occidentals  always  maintained  their  superiority.  The  Per- 
sians nowhere  encountered  resistance  from  the  empire  ;  but 
Edessa  still  held  out,  and  Caesarea  had  bravely  defended 
itself,  and  had  only  fallen  by  treachery.  The  local  resist- 
ance gradually  passed  beyond  a  mere  defensive  behind 
the  walls  of  towns,  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  Persian 
hosts,  brought  about  by  the  wide  extent  of  the  conquered 
territory,  was  favourable  to  the  bold  partisan.  A  self-ap- 
pointed Koman  leader,  Callistus,^  succeeded  in  a  happy 
cowp  de  main  ;  with  the  vessels  which  he  had  brought  to- 
gether in  the  ports  of  Cilicia  he  sailed  for  Pompeiopolis — 
which  the  Persians  were  just  besieging,  while  they  at  the 
same  time  laid  waste  Lycaonia, — killed  several  thousand 
men,  and  possessed  himself  of  the  royal  harem.    This  in- 

'  The  tradition  according  to  which  Mareades  (so  Ammianus,  xxiii. 
5,  3  ;  Mariades  in  Malalas,  12,  p.  295 ;  Mariadnes  in  contin.  of  Dio, 
fr.  1),  or,  as  he  is  here  called,  Cjriades,  had  himself  proclaimed  as 
Augustus  {Vit.  trig.  tyr.  1)  is  weakly  attested  ;  otherwise  there  might 
doubtless  be  found  in  it  the  occasion  why  Sapor  caused  him  to  be 
put  to  death. 

^  He  is  called  Callistus  in  the  one  tradition,  doubtless  traceable  to 
Dexippus,  in  Syncellus,  p.  716,  and  Zonaras,  xii.  23,  on  the  other 
hand,  Ballista  in  the  biographies  of  the  emperors  and  in  Zonaras, 
xii.  24. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier.  Ill 


duced  the  king,  under  pretext  of  celebrating  a  festival  that 
might  not  be  put  off,  to  go  home  at  once  in  such  haste 
that,  in  order  not  to  be  detained,  he  purchased  from  the 
Edessenes  free  passage  through  their  territory  in  return 
for  all  the  Roman  gold  money  which  he  had  captured  as 
booty.  Odaenathus,  prince  of  Palmyra,  inflicted  consider- 
able losses  on  the  bands  returning  home  from  Antioch  be- 
fore they  crossed  the  Euphrates.  But  hardly  was  the  most 
urgent  danger  from  the  Persians  obviated,  when  two  of 
the  most  noted  among  the  army  leaders  of  the  East,  left  to 
themselves,  Fulvius  Macrianus,  the  officer  who  admin- 
istered the  chest  and  the  depot  of  the  army  in  Samosata,' 
and  the  Callistus  just  mentioned,  renounced  allegiance  to 
the  son  and  co-regent  and  now  sole  ruler  Gallienus — for 
whom,  it  is  true,  the  East  and  the  Persians  were  non-exist- 
ent— and,  themselves  refusing  to  accept  the  purple,  pro- 
claimed the  two  sons  of  the  former,  Fulvius  Macrianus  and 
Fulvius  Quietus,  emperors  (261).  This  step  taken  by  the 
two  distinguished  generals  had  the  effect  of  obtaining  rec- 
ognition for  the  two  young  emperors  in  Egypt  and  in  all 
the  East,  with  the  exception  of  Palmyra,  the  prince  of 
which  took  the  side  of  Gallienus.  One  of  them,  Macri- 
anus, went  off  with  his  father  to  the  West,  in  order  to 
install  this  new  government  also  there.  But  soon  fortune 
turned  ;  in  Illyricum  Macrianus  lost  a  battle  and  his  life, 
not  against  Gallienus,  but  against  another  pretender. 
Odaenathus  turned  against  the  brother  who  remained  be- 
hind in  Syria  ;  at  Hemesa,  where  the  armies  met,  tho 
soldiers  of  Quietus  replied  to  the  summons  to  surrender 
that  they  would  rather  submit  to  anything  than  deliver 
themselves  into  the  hands  of  a  barbarian.  Nevertheless 
Callistus,  the  general  of  Quietus,  betrayed  his  master  to 

'  He  was,  according  to  the  most  trustworthy  account,  procurator 
summarum  (eVi  ruv  Ka96xov  ^aaiXeus :  Dionysius  in  Eusebius, 

H.  E.  vii.  10,  5),  and  so  finance -minister  with  equestrian  rank  ; 
the  continuator  of  Dio  {fr.  3  Miill. )  expresses  this  in  the  language 
of  the  later  age  by  Kofx-qs  tcHv  drjaavpwv  koI  ec^eCTws'r^  ayopa  rov 
airov. 


112 


The  Eujphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


the  Palmyrene/  and  thus  ended  also  his  short  govern- 
ment. 

Therewith  Palmyra  stepped  into  the  first  place  in  the  East. 

Gallienus,  more  than  sufficiently  occupied  by 

Government  of  '  .  .    ,     _„  _    ;  .,5 

odaenathus  in  the  barbarians  of  the  West  and  the  military  in- 
surrections everywhere  breaking  out  there,  gave 
to  the  prince  of  Palmyra,  who  alone  had  preserved  fidelity 
to  him  in  the  crisis  just  mentioned,  an  exceptional  position 
without  a  parallel,  but  under  the  prevailing  circumstances 
readily  intelligible  ;  he,  as  hereditary  prince,  or,  as  he  was 
now  called,  king  of  Palmyra,  became,  not  indeed  joint  ruler, 
but  independent  lieutenant  of  the  emperor  for  the  East.^ 
The  local  administration  of  Palmyra  was  conducted  under 

'  At  least  according  to  the  report,  wliicli  forms  the  basis  of  the  im- 
perial biographies  ((oita  Gallieni,  3,  and  elsewhere).  According  to 
Zonaras,  xii.  24,  the  only  author  who  mentions  besides  the  end  of 
Callistus,  Odaenathus  caused  him  to  be  put  to  death. 

^  That  Odaenathus,  as  well  as  after  him  his  son  Vaballathus  (apart, 
of  course,  from  the  time  after  the  rupture  with  Aurelian),  were  by 
no  means  August!  (as  the  mt.  Gallieni^  12,  erroneously  states),  is 
shown  both  by  the  absence  of  the  name  of  Augustus  on  the  coins 
and  by  the  title  possible  only  for  a  subject,  v{ir)  c{pnsularis)  =  v{iTa- 
TiKos),  which,  like  the  father  (p.  105,  note  2),  the  son  still  bears. 
The  position  of  governor  is  designated  on  the  coins  of  the  son  by 
im{perator)  cl{ux)  R{omanorum)  =  avT{oKpdrwp)  a-irpaTir/'''^);  in  agree- 
ment therewith  Zonaras  (xii.  23,  and  again  xii.  24)  and  Syncellus 
p.  716)  state  that  Gallienus  appointed  Odaenathus,  on  account  of 
his  victory  over  the  Persians  and  Ballista,  as  (rrpaT7]'yhs  ttjs  ^cfas,  or 
•  ifrrfs  avaroXris  ;  and  the  biographer  of  Gallienus,  10,  that  he  ohtinuit 
t  >tiii8  Orientis  imperium.  By  this  is  meant  all  the  Asiatic  provinces 
and  Egypt ;  the  added  imperator  —  avroKparoop  (comp.  Trifj.  tyr.  15, 
G,  post  reditum  de  Perside — Herodes  son  of  Odaenathus — cum  patre 
imperator  est  a2)pellatus)  is  intended  beyond  doubt  to  express  the 
i'reer  handling  of  power,  different  from  the  usual  authority  of  the 
governor. — To  this  was  added  further  the  now  formally  assumed 
title  of  a  king  of  Palmyra  {Ti'ig.  tyr.  15,  2  :  adsumpto  7iomine  rer/ah), 
Avhich  also  the  son  bears,  not  on  the  Egyptian,  but  on  the  Syrian 
coins.  The  circumstance  that  Odaenathus  is  probably  called  melekh 
malM^  "king  of  kings,"  on  an  inscription  set  up  in  August  271,  and 
so  after  his  death  and  during  the  war  of  his  adherents  with  Aurelian 
(Vogue,  n.  28),  belongs  to  the  revolutionary  demonstrations  of  this 
period  and  forms  no  proof  for  the  earlier  time. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


113 


him  by  another  Palmyrene,  at  the  same  time  as  imperial 
procurator  and  as  his  deputy.'  Therewith  the  whole  im- 
perial power,  so  far  as  it  still  subsisted  at  all  in  the  East, 
lay  in  the  hand  of  the  "barbarian,"  and  the  latter  with  his 
Palmyrenes,  who  were  strengthened  by  the  remains  of  the 
Roman  army  corps  and  the  levy  of  the  land,  re-established 
the  sway  of  Rome  alike  rapidly  and  brilliantly.  Asia  and 
Syria  were  already  evacuated  by  the  enemy.  Odaenathus 
crossed  the  Euphrates,  relieved  at  length  the  brave  Edes- 
senes,  and  retook  from  the  Persians  the  conquered  towns 
'  The  numerous  inscriptions  of  Septimius  Vorodes,  set  up  in  tlie 
years  262  to  267  (Waddington,  2606-2610),  and  so  in  the  lifetime  of 
Odaenathus,  all  designate  him  as  imperial  procurator  of  the  second 
class  (ducenarius),  but  at  the  same  time  partly  by  the  title  apya-n-ervs, 
which  Persian  word,  current  also  among  the  Jews,  signifies  "lord 
of  a  castle,"  "  viceroy"  (Levy,  Zeitsch.  der  deutschen  morgenl.  Gesell- 
scJiaft,  xviii.  90;  Noldeke,  zZ).  xxiv.  107),  partly  as  Si/caioSJrrys  rfjs 
fj.T}TpoKo\(av'ias  which,  beyond  doubt,  is  in  substance  at  any  rate,  if 
not  in  language,  the  same  office.  Presumably  we  must  understand 
by  it  that  office  on  account  of  which  the  father  of  Odaenathus  is 
called  the  "  head  of  Tadmor  "  (p.  105,  note  1) ;  the  one  chief  of  Pal- 
myra competent  for  martial  law  and  for  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice ;  only  that,  since  extended  powers  were  given  to  the  position 
of  Odaenathus,  this  post  as  a  subordinate  office  is  filled  by  a  man  of 
equestrian  rank.  The  conjecture  of  Sachau  {Zeitschr.  der  d.  morgenl. 
Oesellsch.  xxxv.  738)  that  this  Vorodes  is  the  "Wurud"  of  a  cop- 
per coin  of  the  Berlin  cabinet,  and  that  both  are  identical  with  the 
elder  son  of  Odaenathus,  Herodes,  who  was  killed  at  the  same  time 
with  his  father,  is  liable  to  serious  difficulties.  Herodes  and  Orodes 
are  different  names  (in  the  Palmyrene  inscription,  Waddington, 
2610,  the  two  stand  side  by  side) ;  the  son  of  a  senator  cannot  well 
fill  an  equestrian  office  ;  a  procurator  coining  money  with  his  image 
is  not  conceivable  even  for  this  exceptional  state  of  things.  Prob- 
ably the  coin  is  hot  Palmyrene  at  all.  "It  is,"  von  Sallet  writes  to 
me,  "probably  older  than  Odaenathus,  and  belongs  perhaps  to  an 
Arsacid  of  the  second  century  A.  D.;  it  shows  a  head  with  a  head- 
dress similar  to  the  Sassanid  ;  the  reverse,  S  C  in  a  chaplet  of  lau- 
rel, appears  imitated  from  the  coins  of  Antioch."— If  subsequently, 
after  the  breach  with  Rome  in  271,  on  an  inscription  of  Palmyra 
(Waddington,  2611)  two  generals  of  the  Palmyrenes  are  distin-' 
guished,  6  ix4yas  a-Tpa.TrjKa.T'ns,  the  historically  known  Zabdas,  and  6 
iudd^e  (rTpaTr}\dT'ns,  Zabbaeos,  the  latter  is,  it  may  be  presumed,  just 
the  Argapetes. 

Vol.  II.— 8 


114 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


Nisibis  and  Carrhae  (264).  Probably  Armenia  also  was 
at  that  time  brought  back  under  Eoman  allegiance.  ^  Then 
he  took — for  the  first  time  since  Gordianus — the  offensive 
against  the  Persians,  and  marched  on  Ctesiphon.  In  two 
different  campaigns  the  capital  of  the  Persian  kingdom  was 
invested  by  him,  and  the  neighbouring  region  laid  waste, 
and  there  was  a  successful  battle  with  the  Persians  under 
its  walls. Even  the  Goths,  whose  predatory  raids  ex- 
tended into  the  interior,  retired  when  he  set  out  for  Cap- 
padocia.  A  development  of  power  of  this  sort  was  a  bless- 
ing for  the  hard-pressed  empire,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
serious  danger.  Odaenathus  no  doubt  observed  all  due 
formalities  towards  his  Eoman  lord-paramount,  and  sent 
the  captured  of&cers  of  the  enemy  and  the  articles  of  booty 
to  Rome  for  the  emperor,  who  did  not  disdain  to  triumph 
over  them  ;  but  in  fact  the  East  under  Odaenathus  was  not 
much  less  independent  than  the  West  under  Postumus, 
and  we  can  easily  understand  how  the  officers  favourably 
disposed  towards  Rome  made  opposition  to  the  Palmyrene 
vice-emperor,^  and  on  the  one  hand  there  was  talk  of  at- 
tempts of  Odaenathus  to  attach  himself  to  the  Persians, 

'  The  state  of  the  case  speaks  in  favour  of  this ;  evidence  is  want- 
ing. In  the  imperial  biographies  of  this  epoch  the  Armenians  are 
wont  to  be  adduced  among  the  border  peoples  independent  of  Rome 
{Valer.  6;  Trig.  tyr.  30,  7,  18;  Aurel.  11,  27,  28,  41)  ;  but  this  is 
one  of  their  quite  untrustworthy  elements  of  embellishment. 

2  This  more  modest  account  (Butropius,  ix,  10  ;  vita  Gallieni^  10  ; 
Trig.  tyr.  15,  4  ;  Zos.  i.  39,  who  alone  attests  the  two  expeditions) 
must  be  preferred  to  that  which  mentions  the  capture  of  the  city 
(Syncellus,  p.  716). 

^  This  is  shown  by  the  accounts  as  to  Carinus  (cont.  of  Dio,  p.  8) 
and  as  to  Rufinus  (p.  115,  note  2).  That  after  the  death  of  Odae- 
nathus Ileraclianus,  a  general  acting  on  Gallienus's  orders  against 
the  Persians,  was  attacked  and  conquered  by  Zenobia  {vita  Oallieni^ 
13,  5),  is  in  itself  not  impossible,  seeing  that  the  princes  of  Palmyra 
possessed  de  iure  the  chief  command  in  all  the  East,  and  such  an 
action,  even  if  it  were  suggested  by  Gallienus,  might  be  treated  as 
offending  against  this  right,  and  this  would  clearly  indicate  the 
strained  relation  ;  but  the  authority  vouching  it  is  so  bad  that  little 
stress  caii  be  laid  on  it. 


Chap.  IX.] 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


115 


which  were  alleged  to  have  broken  down  only  through 
Sapor's  arrogance/  while  on  the  other  hand  the  assassina- 
tion of  Odaenathus  at  Hemesa  in  266-7  was  referred  to 
instigation  of  the  Roman  government.^  The  real  mur- 
derer was  a  brother's  son  of  Odaenathus,  and  there  are  no 
proofs  of  the  participation  of  the  government.  At  any  rate 
the  crime  made  no  change  in  the  position  of  affairs. 

The  wife  of  the  deceased,  the  queen  Bat  Zabbai,  or  in 
Greek,  Zenobia,  a  beautiful  and  sagacious 
of^J^nobfJ!*^  woman  of  masculine  energy,^  in  virtue  of  the 
hereditary  right  to  the  principate  claimed  for 
the  son  of  herself  and  Odaenathus,  still  in  boyhood,  Vabal- 
lathus  or  Athenodorus  * — the  elder,  Herodes,  had  perished 
with  his  father — the  position  of  the  deceased,  and  in  fact 

^  This  we  learn  from  the  characteristic  narrative  of  Petrus,/n  10, 
which  is  to  be  placed  before /r.  11. 

^  The  account  of  the  continuator  of  Dio,  fr.  7,  that  the  old  Odae- 
nathus was  put  to  death,  as  suspected  of  treason,  by  one  (not  else- 
where mentioned)  Rufinus,  and  that  the  younger,  when  he  had 
impeached  this  person  at  the  bar  of  the  emperor  Gallienus,  was 
dismissed  on  the  declaration  of  Rufinus  that  the  accuser  deserved 
the  same  fate,  cannot  be  correct  as  it  stands.  But  Waddington's 
proposal  to  substitute  Gallus  for  Gallienus,  and  to  recognise  in  the 
accuser  the  husband  of  Zenobia,  is  not  admissible,  since  the  father 
of  this  Odaenathus  was  Hairanes,  in  whose  case  there  existed  no 
ground  at  all  for  such  an  execution,  and  the  excerpt  in  its  whole 
character  undoubtedly  applies  to  Gallienus.  Rather  must  the  old 
Odaenathus  have  been  the  husband  of  Zenobia,  and  the  author  have 
erroneously  assigned  to  Vaballathus,  in  whose  name  the  charge  was 
brought,  his  father's  name. 

All  the  details  which  are  current  in  our  accounts  of  Zenobia 
originate  from  the  imperial  biographies  ;  and  they  will  only  be  re- 
peated by  such  as  do  not  know  this  source. 

The  name  Vaballathus  is  given,  in  addition  to  the  coins  and  in- 
scriptions, by  Polemius  Silvius,  p.  243  of  my  edition,  and  the  bi- 
ographer of  Aurelian,  c.  38,  while  he  describes  as  incorrect  the 
statement  that  Odaenathus  had  left  two  sons,  Timolaus  and  Heren- 
nianus.  In  reality  these  two  persons  emerging  simply  in  the  im- 
perial biographies  appear  along  with  all  that  is  connected  with  them 
as  invented  by  the  writer,  to  whom  the  thorough  falsification  of 
these  biographies  is  to  be  referred.  Zosimus  too,  i,  59,'  knows  only 
of  one  son,  who  went  into  captivity  with  his  mother. 


116 


The  Ewphrates  Frontier,        [Book  VIII. 


carried  her  point  as  well  in  Rome  as  in  the  East :  the  reg- 
nal years  of  the  son  are  reckoned  from  the  death  of  the 
father.  For  the  son,  not  capable  of  government,  the 
mother  took  part  in  counsel  and  action,  ^  and  she  did  not 
restrict  herself  to  preserving  the  state  of  possession,  but 
on  the  contrary  her  courage  or  her  arrogance  aspired  to 
mastery  over  the  whole  imperial  domain  of  the  Greek 
tongue.  In  the  command  over  the  East,  which  was  com- 
mitted to  Odaenathus  and  inherited  from  him  by  his  son, 
the  supreme  authority  over  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt  may 
doubtless  have  been  included  ;  but  de  facto  Odaenathus 
had  in  his  power  only  Syria  and  Arabia,  and  possibly  Ar- 
menia, Cilicia,  and  Cappadocia.  Now  an  influential  Egyp- 
tian, Timagenes,  summoned  the  queen  to  occupy  Egypt ; 
accordingly  she  despatched  her  chief  general  Zabdas  with 
an  army  of,  it  is  alleged,  70,000  men  to  the  Nile.  The 
land  resisted  with  energy  ;  but  the  Palmyrenes  defeated 
the  Egyptian  levy  and  possessed  themselves  of  Egypt,  A 
Eoman  admiral  Probus  attempted  to  dislodge  them  again, 
and  even  vanquished  them,  so  that  they  set  out  for  Syria  ; 
but,  when  he  attempted  to  bar  their  way  at  the  Egyptian 
Babylon  not  far  from  Memphis,  he  was  defeated  by  the 
better  local  knowledge  of  the  Palmyrene  general  Tima- 
genes, and  he  put  himself  to  death.  ^    When  about  the  be- 

*  Whether  Zenobia  claimed  for  herself  formal  joint-rule,  cannot 
be  certainly  determined.  In  Palmyra  she  names  herself  still  after 
the  rupture  with  Rome  merely  fiaaiKiaa-t]  (Waddington,  2611,  2628), 
in  the  rest  of  the  empire  she  may  have  laid  claim  to  the  title  Au- 
gusta, 2ei8a<rTrj  ;  for,  though  there  are  no  coins  of  Zenobia  from  the 
period  prior  to  the  breach  with  Rome,  yet  on  the  one  hand  the 
Alexandrian  inscription  with  $a(riAi(ra7}s  Koi  (iaaiK^ws  irpoaraldvTuv 
(Eph.  epigr.  iv.  p.  25,  p.  33)  cannot  lay  any  claim  to  official  redac- 
tion, and  on  the  other  hand  the  inscription  of  Byblos,  G.  L  Or. 
4503  b  —  Waddington,  n.  2611,  gives  in  fact  to  Zenobia  the  title 
SejSafTTi^  alongside  of  Claudius  or  Aurelian,  while  it  refuses  it  to  Va- 
ballathus.  This  is  so  far  intelligible,  as  Augusta  was  an  honorary 
designation,  Augustus  an  official  one,  and  thus  that  might  well  be 
conceded  to  the  wife  which  was  refused  to  the  husband. 

So  Zosimus,  i.  44,  narrates  the  course  of  events  with  which  Zo- 
jaaras,  xii.  27,  and  Syncellus,  p.  721,  in  the  main  agree.    The  report 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


117 


ginning  of  the  year  270,  after  the  death  of  the  emperor 
Claudius  Aurelian  came  in  his  stead,  the  Palmyrenes  bore 
sway  over  Alexandria.  In  Asia  Minor  too  they  made  prep- 
arations to  establish  themselves  ;  their  garrisons  v^ere 
pushed  forward  as  far  as  Ancyra  in  Galatia,  and  even  in 
Chalcedon  opposite  Byzantium  they  had  attempted  to  as- 
sert the  rule  of  their  queen.  All  this  happened  without 
the  Palmyrenes  renouncing  the  Roman  government,  nay 
probably  on  the  footing  that  the  control  of  the  East  com- 
mitted by  the  Roman  government  to  the  prince  of  Palmyra 
was  realised  in  this  way,  and  they  taxed  the  Roman  offi- 
cers, who  resisted  the  extension  of  the  Palmyrene  rule, 
with  rebellion  against  the  imperial  orders  ;  the  coins  struck 
in  Alexandria  name  Aurelianus  and  Vaballathus  side  by 
side,  and  give  the  title  of  Augustus  only  to  the  former. 
In  substance,  no  doubt,  the  East  here  detached  itself  from 
the  empire,  and  the  latter  was  divided  into  two  in  the  exe- 
cution of  an  ordinance  wrung  from  the  wretched  Gallienus 
by  necessity. 

The  vigorous  and  prudent  emperor,  to  whom  the  do- 
minion now  had  fallen,  broke  at  once  with 
tti'^'^Paim^^nes*  Palmyrcuc  co-ordinate  government,  which 
then  could  not  but  have  and  had  as  its  conse- 
quence, that  Vaballathus  himself  was  proclaimed  by  his 
people  as  emperor.  Egypt  was  already,  at  the  close  of  the 
year  270,  brought  back  to  the  empire  after  hard  struggles 
by  the  brave  general  Probus,  afterwards  the  successor  of 
Aurelian.'    It  is  true  that  the  second  city  of  the  empire, 

in  the  life  of  Claudius,  c.  11,  is  more  displaced  tlian  properly  con- 
tradictory ;  the  first  half  is  only  indicated  by  the  naming  of  Saba ; 
the  narrative  begins  with  the  successful  attempt  of  Timagenes  to 
ward  off  the  attack  of  Probus  (here  Probatus).  The  view  taken  of 
this  by  me  in  Sallet  {Palmyra,  p.  44)  is  not  tenable. 

1  The  determination  of  the  date  depends  on  the  fact  that  the 
usurpation-coins  of  Vaballathus  cease  already  in  the  fifth  year  of  his 
Egyptian  reign,  i.e.  29th  August  270-71;  the  fact  that  they  are  very 
rare  speaks  for  the  beginning  of  the  year.  With  this  essentially 
agrees  the  circumstance  that  the  storming  of  the  Prucheion  (which, 
we  may  add,  was  no  part  of  the  city,  but  a  locality  close  by  the  city 


118 


The  Euphrates  Frontier,        [Book  VIII. 


Alexandria,  paid  for  this  victory  almost  with  its  existence, 
as  will  be  set  forth  in  the  following  section.  More  diffi- 
cult was  the  reduction  of  the  remote  Syrian  oasis.  All 
other  Oriental  wars  of  the  imperial  period  had  chiefly 
been  waged  by  imperial  troops  having  their  home  in  the 
East  ;  here,  where  the  West  had  once  more  to  subdue  the 
revolted  East,  there  fought  once  more,  as  in  the  time  of 
the  free  republic.  Occidentals  against  Orientals,'  the  sol- 
diers of  the  Ehine  and  of  the  Danube  with  those  of  the 
Syrian  desert.  The  mighty  expedition  began,  apparently 
toward  the  close  of  the  year  271 ;  without  encountering 
resistance  the  Roman  army  arrived  at  the  frontier  of 
Cappadocia  ;  here  the  town  of  Tyana,  which  barred  the 
Cilician  passes,  gave  serious  opposition.  After  it  had 
fallen,  and  Aurelian,  by  gentle  treatment  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, had  smoothed  his  way  to  further  successes,  he 
crossed  the  Taurus,  and,  passing  through  Cilicia,  arrived 
in  Syria.  If  Zenobia,  as  is  not  to  be  doubted,  had  reck- 
oned on  active  support  from  the  side  of  the  Persian  king, 
she  found  herself  deceived.  The  aged  king  Shapur  did 
not  interfere  in  this  war,  and  the  mistress  of  the  Roman 
East  continued  to  be  left  to  her  own  military  resources,  of 

on  tlie  side  of  tlie  great  oasis;  Hieronymus,  vit.  Hilarionis^  c  33, 
34,  vol.  ii.  p.  32  Vail.)  is  put  bj  Eusebius  in  his  Chronicle  in  the 
first  year  of  Claudius,  by  Ammianus,  xxii.  16,  15,  under  Aurelian ; 
the  most  exact  report  in  Eusebius,  H.  Ecd.  vii.  32,  is  not  dated. 
The  reconquest  of  Egypt  by  Probus  stands  only  in  his  biography,  c. 
9  ;  it  may  have  happened  as  it  is  told,  but  it  is  possible  also  that  in 
this  thoroughly  falsified  source  the  history  of  Timagenes  has  been 
mutatis  mutandis  transferred  to  the  emperor. 

'  This  is  perhaps  what  the  report  on  the  battle  of  Hemesa,  ex- 
tracted by  Zosimus,  i.  52,  wished  to  bring  out,  when  it  enumerates 
among  the  troops  of  Aurelian  the  Dalmatians,  Moesians,  Panno- 
nians,  Noricans,  Raetians,  Mauretanians,  and  the  guard.  When  he 
associates  with  these  the  troops  of  Tyana  and  some  divisions  from 
Mesopotamia,  Syria,  Phoenice,  Palestine,  this  applies  beyond  doubt 
to  the  Cappadocian  garrisons,  which  had  joined  after  the  capture  of 
Tyana,  and  to  some  divisions  of  the  armies  of  the  East  favourably 
disposed  to  Rome,  who  went  over  to  Aurelian  upon  his  marching 
into  Syria. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Eujphrates  Frontier, 


119 


which  perhaps  even  a  portion  took  the  side  of  the  legiti- 
mate Augustus.  At  Antioch  the  Palmyrene  chief  force 
under  the  general  Zabdas  stopped  the  emperor's  way  ; 
Zenobia  herself  was  present.  A  successful  combat  against 
the  superior  Palmyi:ene  cavalry  on  the  Orontes  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  Aurelian  the  town,  which  not  less  than 
Tyana  received  full  pardon — he  justly  recognised  that  the 
subjects  of  the  empire  were  hardly  to  be  blamed,  when 
they  had  submitted  to  the  Palmyrene  prince  appointed  as 
commander  in  chief  by  the  Eoman  government  itself.  The 
Palmyrenes,  after  having  engaged  in  a  conflict  on  their 
retreat  at  Daphne,  the  suburb  of  Antioch,  marched  off,  and 
struck  into  the  great  route  which  leads  from  the  capi- 
tal of  Syria  to  Hemesa  and  thence  through  the  desert  to 
Palmyra. 

Aurelian  summoned  the  queen  to  submit,  pointing  to 
the  notable  losses  endured  in  the  conflicts  on 
Hemlsa.*  Oroutcs.    Thcsc  wcrc  Eomans  only,  an- 

swered the  queen ;  the  Orientals  did  not  yet 
admit  that  they  were  conquered.  At  Hemesa '  she  took 
her  stand  for  the  decisive  battle.  It  was  long  and  bloody; 
the  Roman  cavalry  gave  way  and  broke  up  in  flight ;  but 
the  legions  decided,  and  victory  remained  with  the  Ro- 
mans. The  march  was  more  difficult  than  the  conflict. 
The  distance  from  Hemesa  to  Palmyra  amounts  in  a  direct 
line  to  seventy  miles,  and,  although  at  that  epoch  of  highly 
developed  Syrian  civilisation  the  region  was  not  waste  in 
the  same  degree  as  at  present,  the  march  of  Aurelian  still 
remains  a  considerable  feat,  especially  as  the  light  horse- 
men of  the  enemy  swarmed  round  the  Roman  army  on  all 
sides.    Aurelian,  however,  reached  his  goal,  and  began  the 

*  By  mistake  Eutropius,  ix.  13,  places  the  decisive  battle  haud 
longe  db  AntibcMa :  the  mistake  is  heightened  in  Rufius,  c.  24  (on 
whom  Hieronymus,  chron.  a.  Ahr.  2289  depends),  and  in  Syncellus, 
p.  721,  by  the  addition  apud  ImmaSy  eV  "ififxais,  which  place,  lyin^ 
33  Roman  miles  from  Antioch  on  the  road  to  Chalcis,  is  far  away 
from  Hemesa.  The  two  chief  accounts,  in  Zosimus  and  the  biog- 
rapher of  Aurelian,  agree  in  all  essentials. 


120 


The  Euphrates  Frontier,       [Book  VIII. 


siege  of  the  strong  and  well-provisioned  city  ;  more  diffi- 
cult than  the  siege  itself  was  the  bringing  up  of  provi- 
sions for  the  besieging  army.  At  length  the  courage  of 
the  princess  sank,  and  she  escaped  from  the  city  to  seek 
aid  from  the  Persians.  Fortune  still  further  helped  the 
emperor.  The  pursuing  Roman  cavalry  took  her  captive 
with  her  son,  just  when  she  had  arrived  at  the  Euphrates 
and  was  about  to  embark  in  the  rescuing  boat ;  and  the 
town,  discouraged  by  her  flight,  capitulated  (272).  Aure- 
lian  granted  here  too,  as  in  all  this  campaign,  full  pardon 
to  the  subdued  burgesses.  But  a  stern  punishment  was 
decreed  over  the  queen  and  her  functionaries  and  officers. 
Zenobia,  after  she  had  for  years  borne  rule  with  masculine 
energy,  did  not  now  disdain  to  invoke  a  woman's  privileges, 
and  to  throw  the  responsibility  on  her  advisers,  of  whom 
not  a  few,  including  the  celebrated  scholar,  Cassius  Lon- 
ginus,  perished  under  the  axe  of  the  executioner.  She 
herself  might  not  be  wanting  from  the  triumphal  proces- 
sion of  the  emperor,  and  she  did  not  take  the  course  of 
Cleopatra,  but  marched  in  golden  chains,  as  a  spectacle  to 
the  Roman  multitude,  before  the  chariot  of  the  victor  to 
the  Roman  capitol.  But  before  Aurelian  could  celebrate 
his  victory  he  had  to  repeat  it. 

A  few  months  after  the  surrender  the  Palmj^renes  once 

more  rose,  killed  the  small  Roman  garrison 
o/paimyra.      scrviug  there,  and  proclaimed  one  Antiochus ' 

as  ruler,  while  they  at  the  same  time  at- 
tempted to  induce  the  governor  of  Mesopotamia,  Marcel- 
linus,  to  revolt.  The  news  reached  the  emperor  when  he 
had  just  crossed  the  Hellespont.  He  returned  at  once, 
and  stood,  earlier  than  friend  or  foe  had  anticipated,  once 

^  This  is  tlie  name  given  by  Zosimus,  i.  60,  and  Polemius  Silvius, 
p.  243 ;  the  Achilleus  of  the  biographer  of  Aurelian,  c.  31,  seems  a 
confusion  with  the  usurper  of  the  time  of  Diocletian. — That  at  the 
same  time  in  Egypt  a  partisan  of  Zenobia  and  at  the  same  time 
robber-chief,  by  name  Firmus,  rose  against  the  government,  is 
doubtless  possible,  but  the  statement  rests  only  on  the  imperial  bi- 
ographies, and  the  details  added  sound  very  suspiciously. 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Euphrates  Frontier,  121 


more  before  the  walls  of  the  insurgent  city.  The  rebels 
had  not  been  prepared  for  this ;  there  was  this  time  no 
resistance,  but  also  no  mercy.  Palmyra  was  destroyed, 
the  commonwealth  dissolved,  the  walls  razed,  the  orna- 
ments of  the  glorious  temple  of  the  sun  transferred  to 
the  temple  which,  in  memory  of  this  victory,  the  emperor 
built  to  the  sun-god  of  the  East  in  Rome ;  only  the  for- 
saken halls  and  walls  remained,  as  they  still  stand  in  part 
at  the  present  day.  This  occurred  in  the  year  273.  *  The 
flourishing  of  Palmyra  was  artificial,  produced  by  the 
routes  assigned  to  traffic  and  the  great  public  buildings 
dependent  on  it.  Now  the  government  withdrew  its  hand, 
from  the  unhappy  city.  Traffic  sought  and  found  other 
paths ;  as  Mesopotamia  was  then  viewed  as  a  Roman 
province  and  soon  came  again  to  the  empire,  and  the 
territory  of  the  Nabataeans  as  far  as  the  port  of  Aelana 
was  in  Roman  hands,  this  intermediate  station  might  be 
dispensed  with,  and  the  traffic  may  have  betaken  itself 
instead  to  Bostra  or  Beroea  (Aleppo).  The  short  meteor- 
like splendour  of  Palmyra  and  its  princes  was  immediately 
followed  by  the  desolation  and  silence  which,  from  that 
time  down  to  the  present  day,  enwrap  the  miserable  desert- 
village  and  the  ruins  of  its  colonnades. 

The  ephemeral  kingdom  of  Palmyra  was  in  its  origin  as 
in  its  fall  closely  bound  up  with  the  relations  of  the  Ro- 
mans to  the  non-Roman  East,  but  not  less  a  part  of  the 

'  The  chronology  of  these  events  is  not  quite  settled.  The  rarity 
of  the  Syrian  coins  of  Vaballathus  as  Augustus  shows  that  the 
rupture  with  Aurelian  (end  of  270)  was  soon  followed  by  the  con- 
quest. According  to  the  dated  inscriptions  of  Odaenathus  and 
Zenobia  of  August  271  (Waddington,  2611),  the  rule  of  the  queen 
was  at  that  time  still  intact.  As  an  expedition  of  this  sort,  from 
the  conditions  of  the  climate,  could  not  well  take  place  otherwise 
than  in  spring,  the  first  capture  of  Palmyra  must  have  ensued  in 
the  spring  of  272.  The  most  recent  (merely  Palmyrene)  inscription 
which  we  know  from  that  quarter  (Vogue,  n.  116)  is  of  August  272. 
The  insurrection  probably  falls  at  this  time ;  the  second  capture 
and  the  destruction  somewhere  in  the  spring  of  the  year  273  (in 
accordance  with  which,  i.  180,  note  1,  is  to  be  corrected). 


122 


The  JEu^hrates  Frontier.         [Book  VIII. 


general  history  of  the  empire.  For,  like  the  western  em- 
pire of  Postumus,  the  eastern  empire  of  Ze- 
o?carus!*^^^  nobia  was  one  of  those  masses  into  which  the 
mighty  whole  seemed  then  about  to  resolve 
itself.  If  during  its  subsistence  its  leaders  endeavoured 
earnestly  to  set  limits  to  the  onset  of  the  Persians,  and 
indeed  the  development  of  its  power  was  dependent  on 
that  very  fact,  not  merely  did  it  in  its  collapse  seek  deliver- 
ance from  those  same  Persians,  but  probably  in  conse- 
quence of  the  revolt  of  Zenobia  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia 
were  lost  to  the  Romans,  and  after  the  subjugation  of 
Palmyra  the  Euphrates  again  for  a  time  formed  the 
frontier.  The  queen,  when  she  arrived  at  it,  hoped  to  find 
a  reception  among  the  Persians ;  and  Aurelian  omitted  to 
lead  the  legions  over  it,  seeing  that  Gaul,  along  with  Spain 
and  Britain,  still  at  that  time  refused  to  recognise  the 
government.  He  and  his  successor  Probus  were  not  able 
to  take  up  this  struggle.  But  when  in  the  year  282,  after 
the  premature  end  of  the  latter,  the  troops  proclaimed 
the  commander  next  in  rank,  Marcus  Aurelius  Carus,  as 
emperor,  it  was  the  first  saying  of  the  new  ruler  that  the 
Persians  should  remember  this  choice,  and  he  kept  it. 
Immediately  he  advanced  with  the  army  into  Armenia  and 
re-established  the  earlier  order  there.  Ai  the  frontier  of 
the  land  he  was  met  by  Persian  envoys,  who  declared 
themselves  ready  to  grant  all  that  was  reasonable  ; '  but 

^  It  throws  no  light  on  the  position  of  the  Armenians,  that  in 
descriptions  otherwise  thoroughly  apocryphal  {vita  Valer.  6 ;  vita 
Aurel.  27,  28)  the  Armenians  after  the  catastrophe  of  Valerian  keep 
to  the  Persians,  and  appear  in  the  last  crisis  of  the  Palmyrenes  as 
allies  of  Zenobia  by  the  side  of  the  Persians ;  both  are  obvious  con- 
sequences from  the  general  position  of  things.  That  Aurelian  did 
not  subdue  Armenia  any  more  than  Mesopotamia,  is  supported  in 
this  case  partly  by  the  silence  of  the  authorities,  partly  by  the  ac- 
count of  Synesius  {de  regno,  p.  17)  that  the  emperor  Carinus  (rather 
Carus)  had  in  Armenia,  close  to  the  frontier  of  the  Persian  territory, 
summarily  dismissed  a  Persian  embassy,  and  that  the  young  Persian 
king,  alarmed  by  its  report,  had  declared  himself  ready  for  any  con- 
cession.   I  do  not  see  how  this  narrative  can  be  referred  to  Probus, 


Chap.  IX.  J         The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


123 


they  were  hardly  Hstened  to,  and  the  march  went  on 
incessantly.  Mesopotamia  too  became  once  more  Roman, 
and  the  Parthian  residential  cities  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon 
were  again  occupied  by  the  Romans  without  encountering 
lengthened  resistance — to  which  the  war  between  brothers 
then  raging  in  the  Persian  empire  contributed  its  part.^ 
The  emperor  had  just  crossed  the  Tigris,  and  was  on  the 
point  of  penetrating  into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country, 
when  he  met  his  death  by  violence,  presumably  by  the 
hand  of  an  assassin,  and  thereby  the  campaign  also  met 
its  end.  But  his  successor  obtained  in  peace  the  cession 
of  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia  ;  ^  although  Carus  wore  the 
purple  little  more  than  a  year,  he  re-established  the  im- 
perial frontier  of  Severus. 

as  von  Gutschmid  thinks  {ZeitscTir.  d.  deutsch.  morgenl.  Gesell.  xxxi. 
50) ;  on  the  other  hand  it  suits  very  well  the  Persian  expedition  of 
Carus. 

^  The  reconquest  of  Mesopotamia  is  reported  only  by  the  biog- 
rapher, c.  8  ;  but  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Persian  war  under  Dio- 
cletian it  is  Roman.  There  is  mention  at  the  same  place  of  internal 
troubles  in  the  Persian  empire  ;  also  in  a  discourse  held  in  the  year 
289  {Pa7ieg.  iii.  c.  17)  there  is  mention  of  the  war,  which  is  waged 
against  the  king  of  Persia — this  was  Bahram  II. — by  his  own  brother 
Ormies  or  rather  Hormizd  adscitis  Sacis  et  Ruffis  (?)  et  Gellis  (comp. 
Noldeke,  Tabari,  p.  479).  We  have  altogether  only  some  detached 
notices  as  to  this  important  campaign. 

^  This  is  stated  clearly  by  Mamertinus  {Paneg.  ii.  7,  comp.  ii.  10, 
iii.  6)  in  the  oration  held  in  289 :  Syriam  velut  amplexn  suo  tegebat 
Euphrates  antequam  Piodetiano  sponte  (that  is,  without  Diocletian 
needing  to  have  recourse  to  arms,  as  is  then  further  set  forth)  se 
dederent  regna  Persarum  ;  and  further  by  another  panegyrist  of  the 
year  296  {Paneg.  v.  3) :  Po^rtho  ultra  Tigrim  reducto.  Turns  like 
that  in  Victor,  Caes.  xxxix.  33,  that  Galerius  reUctis  finibus  had 
marched  to  Mesopotamia,  or  that  Narseh,  according  to  Rufius  Festus, 
c.  25,  ceded  Mesopotamia  in  peace,  cannot  on  the  other  hand  be 
urged ;  and  as  little,  that  Oriental  authorities  place  the  Roman 
occupation  of  Nisibis  in  609  Sel.  =297/8  a.d.  (Noldeke,  Tabar%^  p. 
50).  If  this  were  correct,  the  exact  account  as  to  the  negotiations 
for  peace  of  297  in  Petrus  Patricius,  fr.  14,  could  not  possibly  be 
silent  as  to  the  cession  of  Mesopotamia  and  merely  ma'ke  mention 
of  the  regulation  of  the  frontier-traffic. 


124: 


The  Euphrates  Frontier.        [Book  VIII. 


Some  years  afterwards  (293)  a  new  ruler,  Narseh,  son  of 
king  Shapur,  ascended  the  throne  of  Ctesi- 

Persian  war  un-     ,  ^    ^     ^        ^  /i-r-k  -ji 

der  Diocletian,  phon,  and  declared  war  on  the  Komans  m  the 
year  296  for  the  possession  of  Mesopotamia 
and  Armenia.'  Diocletian,  who  then  had  the  supreme  con- 
duct of  the  empire  generally,  and  of  the  East  in  particular, 
entrusted  the  management  of  the  war  to  his  imperial  col- 
league Galerius  Maximianus,  a  rough  but  brave  general. 
The  beginning  was  unfavourable.  The  Persians  invaded 
Mesopotamia  and  reached  as  far  as  Carrhae  ;  the  Caesar 
led  against  them  the  Syrian  legions  over  the  Euphrates  at 
Nicephorium  ;  between  these  two  positions  the  armies  en- 
countered each  other,  and  the  far  weaker  Roman  force 
gave  way.  It  was  a  hard  blow,  and  the  young  general  had 
to  submit  to  severe  reproaches,  but  he  did  not  despair. 
Eor  the  next  campaign  reinforcements  were  brought  up 
from  the  whole  empire,  and  both  rulers  personally  took 
the  field  ;  Diocletian  took  his  position  in  Mesopotamia 
with  the  chief  force,  while  Galerius,  reinforced  by  the 
flower  of  the  Illyrian  troops  that  had  in  the  meantime 
come  up,  met,  with  a  force  of  25,000  men,  the  enemy  in 
Armenia,  and  inflicted  on  him  a  decisive  defeat.  The  camp 
and  the  treasure,  nay,  even  the  harem,  of  the  great-king 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  warriors,  and  with  difficulty  Nar- 
seh himself  escaped  from  capture.  In  order  to  recover  the 
women  and  the  children  the  king  declared  himself  ready 
to  conclude  peace  on  any  terms  ;  his  envoy  Apharban  con- 
jured the  Romans  to  spare  the  Persians,  saying  that  the 
two  empires,  the  Roman  and  the  Parthian,  were  as  it  were, 
the  two  eyes  of  the  world,  and  neither  could  dispense  with 
the  other.  It  would  have  lain  in  the  power  of  the  Romans 
to  add  one  more  to  their  Oriental  provinces  ;  the  prudent 
ruler  contented  himself  with  regulating  the  state  of  pos- 

^  That  Narseh  broke  into  Armenia,  at  that  time  Roman,  is  stated  by 
Ammianus,  xxiii.  5,  11  ;  for  Mesopotamia  the  same  follows  from 
Eutropius,  ix.  24.  On  the  1st  March  296  peace  was  still  subsisting, 
or  at  any  rate  the  declaration  of  war  was  not  yet  known  in  the  west 
{Paneg.  v.  10). 


Chap.  IX.]         The  Ewpkrates  Frontier. 


125 


session  in  the  nortli-east.  Mesopotamia  remained,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  in  the  Roman  possession  ;  the  impor- 
tant commercial  intercourse  with  the  neighbouring  foreign 
land  was  placed  under  strict  state-control  and  essentially 
directed  to  the  strong  city  of  Nisibis,  the  basis  of  the  Ro- 
man frontier-guard  in  eastern  Mesopotamia.  The  Tigris 
was  recognised  as  boundary  of  the  direct  Roman-rule,  to 
such  an  extent,  however,  that  the  whole  of  southern  Ar- 
menia as  far  as  the  lake  Thospitis  (lake  of  Van)  and  the 
Euphrates,  and  so  the  whole  upper  valley  of  the  Tigris, 
should  belong  to  the  Roman  empire.  This  region  lying  in 
front  of  Mesopotamia  did  not  become  a  province  proper, 
but  was  administered  after  the  previous  fashion  as  the  Ro- 
man satrapy  of  Sophene.  Some  decades  later  the  strong 
fortress  of  Amida  (Diarbekir)  was  constructed  here,  thence- 
forth the  chief  stronghold  of  the  Romans  in  the  region  of 
the  upper  Tigris.  At  the  same  time  the  frontier  between 
Armenia  and  Media  was  regulated  afresh,  and  the  suprem- 
acy of  Rome  over  that  land,  as  over  Iberia,  was  once 
more  confirmed.  The  peace  did  not  impose  important 
cessions  of  territory  on  the  conquered,  but  it  established  a 
frontier  favourable  to  the  Romans,  which  for  a  consider- 
able time  served  in  these  much  contested  regions  as  a  de- 
marcation of  the  two  empires.  ^    The  polity  of  Trajan  there- 

'  The  differences  in  the  exceptionally  good  accounts,  particularly 
of  Petrus  Patricius,  fr.  14,  and  Ammianus,  xxv.  7,  9,  are  probably 
only  of  a  formal  kind.  The  fact  that  the  Tigris  was  to  be  the  proper 
boundary  of  the  empire,  as  Priscus  says,  does  not  exclude,  especially 
considering  the  peculiar  character  of  its  upper  course,  the  possibil- 
ity of  the  boundary  there  partially  going  beyond  it ;  on  the  contrary, 
the  five  districts  previously  named  in  Petrus  appear  to  be  adduced 
just  as  beyond  the  Tigris,  and  to  be  excepted  from  the  following 
general  definition.  The  districts  adduced  by  Priscus  here  and,  ex- 
pressly as  beyond  the  Tigris,  by  Ammianus — these  are  in  both  Ar- 
zanene,  Carduene,  and  Zabdicene,  in  Priscus  Sophene  and  Intilene 
(  '  rather  Ingilene,  in  Armenia  Angel,  now  Egil"  ;  Kiepert),  in  Am- 
mianus Moxoene  and  Rehimene  ( ?)  cannot  possibly  all  have  been 
looked  on  by  the  Romans  as  Persian  before  the  peace,  when  at  any 
rate  Armenia  was  already  Romano  iuri  ohnoxia  (Ammianus,  xxiii.  5, 
11)  ;  beyond  doubt  the  more  westerly  of  them  already  then  formed 


126 


The  Euphrates  Frontier. 


[Book  VIII. 


by  obtained  its  complete  accomplisbment  ;  at  all  events 
the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  Koman  rule  shifted  itself  just 
at  this  time  from  the  West  to  the  East. 

a  part  of  Roman  Armenia,  and  stand  here  only  in  so  far  as  they 
were,  in  consequence  of  the  peace,  incorporated  with  the  empire  as 
the  satrapy  of  Sophene.  That  the  question  here  concerned  not  the 
boundary  of  the  cession,  but  that  of  the  territory  directly  imperial, 
is  shown  by  the  conclusion,  which  settles  the  boundary  between 
Armenia  and  Media. 


CHAPTER  X. 


SYRIA  AND  THE  LAND  OF  THE  NABATAEANS. 

It  was  very  gradually  that  the  Eomans,  after  acquiring  the 
western  half  of  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterra- 
sySa!^^^*^°^  nean,  resolved  on  possessing  themselves  also 
of  the  eastern  half.  Not  the  resistance,  which 
they  here  encountered  in  comparatively  slight  measure, 
but  a  well-founded  fear  of  the  denationalising  conse- 
quences of  such  acquisitions,  led  to  as  prolonged  an  effort 
as  possible  on  their  part  merely  to  preserve  decisive  politi- 
cal influence  in  those  regions,  and  to  the  incorporation 
proper  at  least  of  Syria  and  Egypt  taking  place  only  when 
the  state  was  already  almost  a  monarchy.  Doubtless  the 
Eoman  empire  became  thereby  geographically  compact ; 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  the  proper  basis  of  Eome  after  it 
was  a  great  power,  became  on  all  sides  a  Roman  inland 
lake  ;  the  navigation  and  commerce  on  its  waters  and 
shores  formed  politically  an  unity  to  the  advantage  of  all 
that  dwelt  around.  But  by  the  side  of  geographical  com- 
pactness went  national  bipartition.  Through  Greece  and 
Macedonia  the  Roman  state  would  never  have  become 
binational,  any  more  than  the  Greek  cities  of  Neapolis 
and  Massalia  had  Hellenised  Campania  and  Provence. 
But,  while  in  Europe  and  Africa  the  Greek  domain  van- 
ishes in  presence  of  the  compact  mass  of  the  Latin,  so 
much  of  the  third  continent  as  was  drawn,  with  the  Nile- 
valley  rightfully  pertaining  to  it,  into  this  cycle  of  culture 
belonged  exclusively  to  the  Greeks,  and  Antioch  and  Al- 
exandria in  particular  were  the  true  pillars  of  the  Hellenic 
development  that  attained  its  culmination  in  Alexander — 
(lentres  of  Hellenic  life  and  Hellenic  culture,  and  great 


128 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


cities,  as  was  Eome.  After  having  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  the  conflict  between  the  East  and  West  in 
and  around  Armenia  and  Mesopotamia,  that  filled  the 
whole  period  of  the  empire,  we  turn  to  describe  the  re- 
lations of  the  Syrian  regions,  as  they  took  shape  at  the 
same  time.  "What  we  mean  is  the  territory  which  is  sepa- 
rated by  the  mountain-chain  of  Pisidia,  Isauria,  and  West- 
ern Cilicia  from  Asia  Minor  ;  by  the  eastern  continuation 
of  these  mountains  and  the  Euphrates  from  Armenia  and 
Mesopotamia,  by  the  Arabian  desert  from  the  Parthian 
empire  and  from  Egypt ;  only  it  seemed  fitting  to  deal 
with  the  peculiar  fortunes  of  Judaea  in  a  special  section. 
In  accordance  with  the  diversity  of  political  development 
under  the  imperial  government,  we  shall  speak  in  the  first 
instance  of  Syria  proper,  the  northern  portion  of  this  ter- 
ritory, and  of  the  Phoenician  coast  that  stretches  along 
under  the  Libanus,  and  then  of  the  country  lying  behind 
Palestine — the  territory  of  the  Nabataeans.  What  was  to 
be  said  about  Palmyra  has  already  found  its  place  in  the 
preceding  chapter. 

After  the  partition  of  the  provinces  between  the  em- 
peror and  the  senate,  Syria  was  under  im- 
Govrrmnent.  perial  administration,  and  was  in  the  East, 
like  Gaul  in  the  West,  the  central  seat  of  civil 
and  military  control.  This  governorship  was  from  the 
beginning  the  most  esteemed  of  all,  and  only  became  in 
course  of  time  all  the  more  thought  of.  Its  holder,  like 
the  governor  of  the  two  Germanics,  wielded  the  command 
over  four  legions,  and  while  the  administration  of  the  in- 
land Gallic  districts  was  taken  away  from  the  commanders 
of  the  Rhine-army  and  a  certain  restriction  was  involved 
in  the  very  fact  of  their  co-ordination,  the  governor  of 
Syria  retained  the  civil  administration  of  the  whole  large 
province  undiminished,  and  held  for  long  alone  in  all  Asia 
a  command  of  the  first  rank.  Under  Vespasian,  indeed, 
he  obtained  in  the  governors  of  Palestine  and  Cappadocia 
two  colleagues  likewise  commanding  legions  ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  through  the  annexation  of  the  kingdom  of 


Chap.  X.]         Land  of  the  Wdbataeans, 


129 


Commagene,  and  soon  afterwards  of  the  principalities  in 
the  Libanus,  the  field  of  his  administration  was  increased. 
It  was  only  in  the  course  of  the  second  century  that  a 
diminution  of  his  prerogatives  occurred,  when  Hadrian 
took  one  of  the  four  legions  from  the  Governor  of  Syria 
and  handed  it  over  to  the  governor  of  Palestine.  It  was 
Severus  who  at  length  withdrew  the  first  place  in  the  Ro- 
man military  hierarchy  from  the  Syrian  governor.  After 
having  subdued  the  province — which  had  wished  at  that 
time  to  make  Niger  emperor,  as  it  had  formerly  done  with 
its  governor  Vespasian — amidst  resistance  from  the  capital 
Antioch  in  particular,  he  ordained  its  partition  into  a 
northern  and  a  southern  half,  and  gave  to  the  governor  of 
the  former,  which  was  called  Coele-Syria,  two  legions,  to 
the  governor  of  the  latter,  the  province  of  Syro-Phoenicia, 
one. 

Syria  may  also  be  compared  with  Gaul,  in  so  far  as  this 
district  of  imperial  administration  was  divided 
Syrian  troops.  ^^^^  sharply  than  most  into  pacified  regions 
and  border-districts  needing  protection.  While  the  ex- 
tensive coast  of  Syria  and  the  the  western  regions  gen- 
erally were  not  exposed  to  hostile  attacks,  and  the  protec- 
tion on  the  desert  frontier  against  the  roving  Bedouins 
devolved  on  the  Arabian  and  Jewish  princes,  and  subse- 
quently on  the  troops  of  the  province  of  Arabia  as  also  on 
the  Palmyrenes,  more  than  on  the  Syrian  legions,  the 
Euphrates-frontier  required,  particularly  before  Mesopo- 
tamia became  Roman,  a  watch  against  the  Parthians  simi- 
lar to  that  on  the  Rhine  against  the  Germans.  But  if  the 
Syrian  legions  came  to  be  employed  on  the  frontier,  they 
could  not  be  dispensed  with  in  western  Syria  as  well.' 

^  We  cannot  exactly  determine  the  standing  quarters  of  the  Syrian 
legions;  yet  what  is  here  said  is  substantially  assured.  Under  Nero 
the  10th  legion  lay  at  Raphaneae,  north-west  from  Hamath  (Jo- 
sephus,  Bell.  Jud.  vii.  1,  3)  ;  and  at  that  same  place,  or  at  any  rate 
nearly  in  this  region  under  Tiberius  the  6th  (Tacitus,  Ann.  ii.  79)  ; 
probably  in  or  near  Antioch  the  12th  under  Nero  (Josephus,  BelL 
Jud.  ii,  18,  19).  At  least  one  legion  lay  on  the  Euphrates  ;  for  the 
time  before  the  annexation  of  Commagene  Josephus  attests  this 
Vol.  II.— 9 


130 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


The  troops  of  the  Rhine  were  certainly  there  also  on  ac- 
count of  the  Gauls  ;  yet  the  Romans  might  say  with  justi- 
fiable pride  that  for  the  great  capital  of  Gaul  and  the 
three  Gallic  provinces  a  direct  garrison  of  1,200  men  suf- 
ficed. But  for  the  Syrian  population,  and  especially  for 
the  capital  of  Roman  Asia,  it  was  not  enough  to  station 
legions  on  the  Euphrates.  Not  merely  on  the  edge  of  the 
desert,  but  also  in  the  retreats  of  the  mountains  there 
lodged  daring  bands  of  robbers,  who  roamed  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  rich  fields  and  large  towns — not  to  the 
same  extent  as  now,  but  constantly  even  then — and,  often 
disguised  as  merchants  or  soldiers,  pillaged  the  country 
houses  and  the  villages.  But  even  the  towns  themselves, 
above  all  Antioch,  required  like  Alexandria  garrisons  of 
their  own.  Beyond  doubt  this  was  the  reason  why  a  div- 
ision into  civil  and  military  districts,  like  that  enacted 
for  Gaul  by  Augustus,  was  never  even  so  mucb  as  at- 
tempted in  Syria,  and  why  the  large  self-subsistent  camp- 
settlements,  out  of  which  e.g.  originated  Mentz  on  the 
Rhine,  Leon  in  Spain,  Chester  in  England,  were  alto- 
gether wanting  in  the  Roman  East.  But  beyond  doubt 
this  was  also  the  reason  why  the  Syrian  army  was  so  much 
inferior  in  discipline  and  spirit  to  that  of  the  Western 
provinces  ;  why  the  stern  discipline,  which  was  exercised 
in  the  military  standing  camps  of  the  West,  never  could 
take  root  in  the  urban  cantonments  of  the  East.  When 

{Bell.  Jud.  vii.  1,  3),  and  subsequently  one  of  the  Syrian  legions 
had  its  headquarters  in  Samosata  (Ptolemaeus,  v.  15, 11  ;  inscription 
from  the  time  of  Severus,  C.  1.  L.  vi.  1409  ;  Itin.  Antonini,  p. 
186).  Probably  the  staffs  of  most  of  the  Syrian  legions  had  their 
seat  in  the  western  districts,  and  the  ever-recurring  complaint  that 
encamping  in  the  towns  disorganised  the  Syrian  army,  applies 
chiefly  to  this  arrangement.  It  is  doubtful  whether  in  the  better 
times  there  existed  headquarters  proper  of  the  legions  on  the  edge 
of  the  desert ;  at  the  frontier-posts  there  detachments  of  the  legions 
were  employed,  and  in  particular  the  specially  disturbed  district  be- 
tween Damascus  and  Bostra  was  strongly  furnished  with  legionaries 
provided  on  the  one  hand  by  the  command  of  Syria,  on  the  other 
by  that  of  Arabia  after  its  institution  by  Trajan. 


Chap.  X.]  Land  of  the  N^ahataeans.  131 


stationary  troops  have,  in  addition  to  their  more  im- 
mediate destination,  the  task  of  police  assigned  to  them, 
this  of  itself  has  a  demoralising  effect ;  and  only  too  often, 
where  they  are.  expected  to  keep  in  check  turbulent  civic 
masses,  their  own  discipline  in  fact  is  thereby  undermined. 
The  Syrian  wars  formerly  described  furnish  the  far  from 
pleasant  commentary  on  this ;  none  of  them  found  an 
army  capable  of  warfare  in  existence,  and  regularly  there 
was  need  to  bring  up  Occidental  troops  in  order  to  give 
the  turn  to  the  struggle. 

Syria  in  the  narrower  sense  and  its  adjoining  lands, 
the  Plain  Cilicia  and  Phoenicia,  never  had 
s/ria°^^'"^  under  the  Boman  emperors  a  history  properly 
so  called.  The  inhabitants  of  these  regions 
belonged  to  the  same  stock  as  the  inhabitants  of  Judaea 
and  Arabia,  and  the  ancestors  of  the  Syrians  and  the 
Phoenicians  were  settled  in  a  remote  age  at  one  spot  with 
those  of  the  Jews  and  the  Arabs,  and  spoke  one  language. 
But  while  the  latter  clung  to  their  peculiar  character  and 
to  their  language,  the  Syrians  and  the  Phoenicians  became 
Hellenised  even  before  they  came  under  Roman  rule. 
This  Hellenising  took  effect  throughout  in  the  formation 
of  Hellenic  polities.  The  foundation  for  this  had  indeed 
been  laid  by  the  native  development,  particularly  by  the 
old  and  great  mercantile  cities  on  the  Phoenician  coast. 
But  above  all  the  formation  of  states  by  Alexander  and  the 
Alexandrids,  just  like  that  of  the  Roman  republic,  had  as 
its  basis  not  the  tribe,  but  the  urban  community ;  it  was 
not  the  old  Macedonian  hereditary  principality,  but  the 
Greek  polity  that  Alexander  carried  into  the  East ;  and  it 
was  not  from  tribes,  but  from  towns  that  he  designed,  and 
the  Romans  designed,  to  constitute  their  empire.  The 
idea  of  the  autonomous  burgess-body  is  an  elastic  one,  and 
the  autonomy  of  Athens  and  Thebes  was  a  different  thing 
from  that  of  the  Macedonian  and  Syrian  city,  just  as  in  the 
Roman  circle  the  autonomy  of  free  Capua  had  another 
import  than  that  of  the  Latin  colonies  of  the  republic  or 
even  of  the  urban  communities  of  the  empire  ;  but  the 


132 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


fundamental  idea  is  everywhere  that  of  self-administering 
citizenship  sovereign  within  its  own  ring-waU.  After  the 
fall  of  the  Persian  empire,  Syria,  along  with  the  neighbour- 
ing Mesopotamia,  was,  as  the  military  bridge  of  connection 
between  the  West  and  the  East,  covered  more  than  any 
other  land  with  Macedonian  settlements.  The  Macedonian 
names  of  places  transferred  thither  to  the  greatest  extent, 
and  nowhere  else  recurring  in  the  whole  empire  of  Alex- 
ander, show  that  here  the  flower  of  the  Hellenic  conquerors 
of  the  East  was  settled,  and  that  Syria  was  to  become  for 
this  state  the  New-Macedonia  ;  as  indeed,  so  long  as  the 
empire  of  Alexander  retained  a  central  government,  this 
had  there  its  seat.  Then  the  troubles  of  the  last  Seleucid 
period  had  helped  the  Syrian  imperial  towns  to  greater 
independence. 

These  arrangements  the  Komans  found  existing.  Of 
non-urban  districts  administered  directly  by  the  empire 
there  were  probably  none  at  all  in  Syria  according  to  the 
organisation  planned  by  Pompeius,  and,  if  the  dependent 
principalities  in  the  first  epoch  of  the  Roman  rule  embraced 
a  great  portion  of  the  southern  interior  of  the  province, 
these  were  withal  mostly  mountainous  and  poorly  inhabited 
districts  of  subordinate  importance.  Taken  as  a  whole, 
for  the  Romans  in  Syria  not  much  was  left  to  be  done  as 
to  the  increase  of  urban  development — less  than  in  Asia 
Minor.  Hence  there  is  hardly  anything  to  be  told  from 
the  imperial  period  of  the  founding  of  towns  in  the  strict 
sense  as  regards  Syria.  The  few  colonies  which  were  laid 
out  here,  such  as  Berytus  under  Augustus  and  probably 
also  Heliopolis,  had  no  other  object  than  those  conducted 
to  Macedonia,  namely,  the  settlement  of  veterans. 

How  the  Greeks  and  the  older  population  in  Syria  stood 
to  one  another,  may  be  clearly  traced  by  the 
the  native  Ian-  very  local  uamcs.    The  majority  of  districts 
ftrunde?H^?"  and  towns  here  bear  Greek  names,  in  great 
lenism.  part,  as  we  have  observed,  derived  from  the 

Macedonian  home,  such  as  Pieria,  Anthemusias,  Arethusa, 
.Beroea,  Chalcis,  Edessa,  Europus,  Cyrrhus,  Larisa,  Pella, 


Chap.  X.]         Land  of  the  Ncibataeans.  133 


others  named  after  Alexander  or  tlie  members  of  the  Seleu- 
cid  house,  such  as  Alexandria,  Antiocli,  Seleucis  and  Seleu- 
cia,  Apamea,  Laodicea,  Epiphaneia.  The  old  native  names 
maintain  themselves  doubtless  side  by  side,  as  Beroea, 
previously  in  Aramaean  Chalep,  is  also  called  Chalybon, 
Edessa  or  Hierapolis,  previously  Mabog,  is  called  also  Bam- 
byce,  Epiphaneia,  previously  Hamat,  is  also  called  Amathe. 
But  for  the  most  part  the  older  appellations  give  way  be- 
fore the  foreign  ones,  and  only  a  few  districts  and  larger 
places,  such  as  Commagene,  Samosata,  Hemesa,  Damascus, 
are  without  newly-formed  Greek  names.  Eastern  Cilicia 
has  few  Macedonian  foundations  to  show  ;  but  the  capital 
Tarsus  became  early  and  completely  Hellenised,  and  was 
long  before  the  Koman  time  one  of  the  centres  of  Hellenic 
culture.  It  was  somewhat  otherwise  in  Phoenicia ;  the 
mercantile  towns  of  old  renown,  Aradus,  Byblus,  Berytus, 
Sidon,  Tyrus,  did  not  properly  lay  aside  the  native  names  ; 
but  how  here  too  the  Greek  gained  the  upper  hand,  is 
shown  by  the  Hellenising  transformation  of  these  same 
names,  and  still  more  clearly  by  the  fact  that  New-Aradus 
is  known  to  us  only  under  the  Greek  name  Antaradus,  and 
likewise  the  new  town  founded  by  the  Tyrians,  the  Sido- 
nians,  and  the  Aradians  in  common  on  this  coast  only  under 
the  name  Tripolis,  and  both  have  developed  their  modern 
designations  Tartus  and  Tarabulus  from  the  Greek.  Al- 
ready in  the  Seleucid  period  the  coins  in  Syria  proper 
bear  exclusively,  and  those  of  the  Phoenician  towns  most 
predominantly,  Greek  legends  ;  and  from  the  beginning 
of  the  imperial  period  the  sole  rule  of  Greek  is  here  an 
established  fact.^  The  oasis  of  Palmyra  alone,  not  merely 
separated  by  wide  stretches  of  desert,  but  also  preserving 
a  certain  political  independence,  formed,  as  we  saw  (p. 
103),  an  exception  in  this  respect.  But  in  intercourse  the 
native  idioms  were  retained.  In  the  mountains  of  the  Lib- 
anus  and  the  anti-Libanus,  where  in  Hemesa  (Homs), 

'  There  is  a  coin  of  Byblus  from  the  time  of  Augustus  with  G-reek 
and  Phoenician  legend  (Imhoof-Blumer,  Monnaies  grecques,  1883,  p. 
443). 


134 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


Chalcis,  Abila  (both  between  Berytus  and  Damascus) 
small  princely  houses  of  native  origin  ruled  till  towards  the 
end  of  the  first  century  after  Christ,  the  native  language 
had  probably  the  sole  sway  in  the  imperial  period,  as  in- 
deed in  the  mountains  of  the  Druses  so  difficult  of  access 
the  language  of  Aram  has  only  in  recent  times  yielded  to 
Arabic.  But  tw^o  thousand  years  ago  it  was  in  fact  the 
language  of  the  people  in  all  Syria/  That  in  the  case  of 
the  double-named  towns  the  Syrian  designation  predom- 
inated in  common  life  just  as  did  the  Greek  in  literature, 
appears  from  the  fact  that  at  the  present  day  Beroea-Chaly- 
bon  is  named  Haleb  (Aleppo),  Epiphaneia-Amathe  Hamat, 
Hierapolis-Bambyce-Mabog  Membid,  Tyre  by  its  Aramaean 
name  Sur  ;  that  the  Syrian  town  known  to  us  from  docu- 
ments and  authors  only  as  Heliopolis  still  bears  at  the  pres- 
ent day  its  primitive  native  name  Baalbec,  and,  in  general, 
the  modern  names  of  places  have  come,  not  from  the  Greek, 
but  from  the  Aramaean. 

In  like  manner  the  worship  shows  the  continued  life  of 
Syrian  nationality.  The  Syrians  of  Beroea 
Worship.  "bring  their  votive  gifts  with  Greek  legend  to 
Zeus  Malbachos,  those  of  Apamea  to  Zeus  Belos,  those  of 
Berytus  as  Eoman  citizens  to  Jupiter  Balmarcodes — all 
deities,  in  which  neither  Zeus  nor  Jupiter  had  real  part. 
This  Zeus  Belos  is  no  other  than  the  Malach  Belos  adored 
at  Palmyra  in  the  Syriac  language  (p.  103,  note  1).  How 
vivid  was,  and  continued  to  be,  the  hold  of  the  native 
worship  of  the  gods  in  Syria,  is  most  clearly  attested  by 
the  fact  that  the  lady  of  Hemesa,  who  by  her  marriage- 
relationship  with  the  house  of  Severus  obtained  for  her 
grandson  the  imperial  dignity  at  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century,  not  content  with  the  boy's  being  called 
supreme  Pontifex  of  the  Roman  people,  urged  him  also  to 
entitle  himself  before  all  Romans  the  chief  priest  of  the 

'  Johannes  Chrysostomus  of  Antioch  (f  407)  points  on  several 
ocGSisions  {de  Sanctis  martyr.  0pp.  ed.  Paris,  1718,  vol.  ii.  p.  651; 
Ilomil.  xix.  ibid.  p.  188)  to  the  crepo^caula,  the  fidpfiapos  (puvii  of  the 
Aaov  in  contrast  to  the  language  of  the  cultured. 


Chap.  X.]  Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


135 


native  sun-god  Elagabalus.  The  Romans  might  conquer 
the  Syrians  ;  but  the  Roman  gods  had  in  their  own  home 
yielded  the  field  to  those  of  Syria. 

No  less  are  the  numerous  Syrian  proper  names  that  have 
come  to  us  mainly  non-Greek,  and  double  names  are  not 
rare  ;  the  Messiah  is  termed  also  Christus,  the  apostle 
Thomas  also  Didymus,  the  woman  of  Joppa  raised  up  by 
Peter  "  the  gazelle,"  Tabitha  or  Dorcas.  But  for  litera- 
ture, and  presumably  also  for  business-intercourse  and  the 
intercourse  of  the  cultured,  the  Syrian  idiom  was  as  little 
in  existence  as  the  Celtic  in  the  West ;  in  these  circles 
Greek  exclusively  prevailed,  apart  from  the 
Latin  required  also  in  the  East  for  the  soldiers. 
A  man  of  letters  of  the  second  half  of  the  second  century, 
whom  Sohaemus  the  king  of  Armenia  formerly  mentioned 
(p.  81)  brought  to  his  court,  has  inserted  in  a  romance, 
which  has  its  scene  in  Babylon,  some  points  of  the  history 
of  his  own  life  that  illustrate  this  relation.  He  is,  he  says, 
a  Syrian,  not,  however,  one  of  the  immigrant  Greeks,  but 
of  native  lineage  on  the  father's  and  mother's  side,  Syrian 
by  language  and  habits,  acquainted  also  with  the  Baby- 
lonian language  and  with  Persian  magic.  But  this  same 
man,  who  in  a  certain  sense  declines  the  Hellenic  char- 
acter, adds  that  he  had  appropriated  Hellenic  culture  ; 
and  he  became  an  esteemed  teacher  of  youth  in  Syria, 
and  a  notable  romance-writer  of  the  later  Greek  litera- 
ture.^ 

1  The  extract  of  Photius  from  the  romance  of  Jamblichus,  c.  17, 
which  erroneously  makes  the  author  a  Babylonian,  is  essentially 
corrected  and  supplemented  by  the  schoUon  upon  it.  The  private 
secretary  of  the  great-king,  who  comes  among  Trajan's  captives  to 
Syria,  becomes  there  tutor  of  Jamblichus,  and  instructs  him  in  the 
"  barbarian  wisdom,"  is  naturally  a  figure  of  the  romance  running 
its  course  in  Babylon,  which  Jamblichus  professes  to  have  heard 
from  this  his  instructor  ;  but  characteristic  of  the  time  is  the  Ar- 
menian court-man-of-letters  and  princes'  tutor  (for  it  was  doubtless 
as  "good  rhetor"  that  he  was  called  by  Sohaemus  to  Valarshapat) 
himself,  who  in  virtue  of  his  magical  art  not  merely  understands 
the  charming  of  flies  and  the  conjuring  of  spirits,  but  also  predicts 


136 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


If  subsequently  the  Syrian  idiom  again  became  a  written 
language  and  developed  a  literature  of  its  own, 
uferature^*'  ^®  traced  not  to  an  invigoration  of 

national  feeling,  but  to  the  immediate  needs 
of  the  propagation  of  Christianity.  That  Syriac  literature, 
which  began  with  the  translation  of  the  writings  of  the 
Christian  faith  into  Syriac,  remained  confined  to  the 
sphere  of  the  specific  culture  of  the  Christian  clergy,  and 
hence  took  up  only  the  small  fragments  of  general  Hel- 
lenic culture  which  the  theologians  of  that  time  found 
conducive  to,  or  compatible  with,  their  ends  this  author- 
ship did  not  attain,  and  doubtless  did  not  strive  after,  any 
higher  aim  than  the  transference  of  the  library  of  the 
Greek  monastery  to  the  Maronite  cloisters.  It  hardly 
reaches  further  back  than  to  the  second  century  of  our  era, 
and  had  its  centre,  not  in  Syria,  but  in  Mesopotamia, 
particularly  in  Edessa,^  where  the  native  language  had  not 
become  so  entirely  a  dialect  as  in  the  older  Eoman  terri- 
tory. 

Among  the  manifold  bastard  forms  which  Hellenism  as- 
sumed in  the  course  of  its  diffusion  at  once 
S?cSS?e.  civilising  and  degenerating,  the  Syro-Hellenic 
is  doubtless  that  in  which  the  two  elements 
are  most  equally  balanced,  but  perhaps  at  the  same  time 
that  which  has  most  decisively  influenced  the  collective 
development  of  the  empire.    The  Syrians  received,  no 

to  Verus  the  victory  over  Vologasus,  and  at  tlie  same  time  narrates 
in  Greek  to  the  Greeks  stories  such  as  might  stand  in  the  Thousand 
and  One  Nights. 

^  Syriac  literature  consists  almost  exclusively  of  translations  of 
Greek  works.  Among  profane  writings  treatises  of  Aristotle  and 
Plutarch  stand  in  the  first  rank,  then  practical  writings  of  a  juristic 
or  agronomic  character,  and  books  of  popular  entertainment,  such 
as  the  romance  of  Alexander,  the  fables  of  Aesop,  the  sentences  of 
Menander. 

The  Syriac  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  the  oldest  text  of 
the  Syriac  language  known  to  us,  probably  originated  in  Edessa  ; 
the  o-TpaTtwTot  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  are  here  called  **  Ro- 
mans." 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  JSFahataeans. 


13Y 


doubt,  the  Greek  urban  organisation  and  appropriated 
Hellenic  language  and  habits  ;  nevertheless  they  did  not 
cease  to  feel  themselves  as  Orientals,  or  rather  as  organs 
of  a  double  civilisation.  Nowhere  is  this  perhaps  more 
Tombof  Antio  ^^^P^J  Gxpressed  than  in  the  colossal  tomb- 
chus  of  Comma-  temple,  which  at  the  commencement  of  the 
imperial  period  Antiochus  king  of  Commagene 
erected  for  himself  on  a  solitary  mountain-summit  not  far 
from  the  Euphrates.  He  names  himself  in  the  copious 
epitaph  a  Persian  ;  the  priest  of  the  sanctuary  is  to  pre- 
sent to  him  the  memorial-offering  in  the  Persian  dress,  as 
the  custom  of  his  family  demands  ;  but  he  calls  the  Hel- 
lenes also,  like  the  Persians,  the  blessed  roots  of  his  race, 
and  entreats  the  blessing  of  all  the  gods  of  Persis  as  of 
Macetis,  that  is  of  the  Persian  as  well  as  of  the  Macedo- 
nian land,  to  rest  upon  his  descendants.  For  he  is  the  son 
of  a  native  king  of  the  family  of  the  Achaemenids  and  of  a 
Greek  prince's  daughter  of  the  house  of  Seleucus  ;  and,  in 
keeping  with  this,  the  images  on  the  one  hand  of  his  pa- 
ternal ancestors  back  to  the  first  Darius,  on  the  other  hand 
of  his  maternal  back  to  Alexander's  marshal,  embellished 
the  tomb  in  a  long  double  row.  But  the  gods,  whom  he 
honours,  are  at  the  same  time  Persian  and  Greek,  Zeus 
Oromasdes,  Apollon  Mithras  Helios  Hermes,  Artagnes 
Herakles  Ares,  and  the  effigy  of  this  latter,  for  example, 
bears  the  club  of  the  Greek  hero  and  at  the  same  time  the 
Persian  tiara.  This  Persian  prince,  who  calls  himself  at 
the  same  time  a  friend  of  the  Hellenes,  and  as  loyal  sub- 
ject of  the  emperor  a  friend  of  the  Romans,  as  not  less 
that  Achaemenid  called  by  Marcus  and  Lucius  to  the 
throne  of  Armenia,  Sohaemus,  are  true  representatives  of 
the  native  aristocracy  of  imperial  Syria,  which  bears  in 
mind  alike  Persian  memories  and  the  Romano-Hellenic 
present.  From  such  circles  the  Persian  worship  of  Mithra 
reached  the  West.  But  the  population,  which  was  placed 
at  the  same  time  under  this  great  nobility  Persian  or  call- 
ing itself  Persian,  and  under  the  government  of  Macedo- 
nian and  later  of  Italian  masters,  was  in  Syria,  as  in  Meso- 


138 


Syria  and  the  [Book  VIIl. 


potamia  and  Babylonia,  Aramaean ;  it  reminds  us  in  va- 
rious respects  of  the  modern  Roumans  in  presence  of  the 
upper  ranks  of  Saxons  and  Magyars.  Certainly  it  was  the 
most  corrupt  and  most  corrupting  element  in  the  con- 
glomerate of  the  Romano-Hellenic  peoples.  Of  the  so- 
called  Caracalla,  who  was  born  at  Lyons  as  son  of  an  Afri- 
can father  and  a  Syrian  mother,  it  was  said  that  he  united  in 
himself  the  vices  of  three  races,  Gallic  frivolity,  African 
savageness,  and  Syrian  knavery. 

This  interpenetration  of  the  East  and  Hellenism,  which 

has  nowhere  been  carried  out  so  completely 
NeoptitonSm."'^  Syria,  meets  us  predominantly  in  the 

form  of  the  good  and  noble  becoming  ruined 
in  the  mixture.  This,  however,  is  not  everywhere  the  case  ; 
the  later  developments  of  religion  and  of  speculation, 
Christianity  and  Neoplatonism,  have  proceeded  from  the 
same  conjunction  ;  if  with  the  former  the  East  penetrates 
into  the  West,  the  latter  is  the  transformation  of  the  Occi- 
dental philosophy  in  the  sense  and  spirit  of  the  East — a 
creation  in  the  first  instance  of  the  Egyptian  Plotinus 
(204-270)  and  of  his  most  considerable  disciple  the  Syrian 
Malchus  or  Porphyrins  (233  till  after  300),  and  thereafter 
pre-eminently  cultivated  in  the  towns  of  Syria.  For  a 
discussion  of  these  two  phenomena,  so  significant  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  this  is  not  the  place  ;  but  they  may 
not  be  forgotten  in  estimating  the  position  of  matters  in 
Syria. 

The  Syrian  character  finds  its  eminent  expression  in  the 
capital  of  the  country  and,  before  Constanti- 
nople was  founded,  of  the  Roman  East  gen- 
erally— inferior  as  respects  population  only  to  Rome  and 
Alexandria,  and  possibly  also  to  the  Babylonian  Selucia — 
Antioch,  on  which  it  appears  requisite  to  dwell  for  a  mo- 
ment. The  town,  one  of  the  youngest  in  Syria  and  now 
of  small  importance,  did  not  become  a  great  city  by  the 
natural  circumstances  of  commerce,  but  was  a  creation  of 
monarchic  policy.  The  Macedonian  conquerors  called  it 
into  life,  primarily  from  military  considerations,  as  a  fitting 


Chap.  X.]         Land  of  the  N abataeans. 


139 


central  place  for  a  rule  which  embraced  at  once  Asia  Minor, 
the  region  of  the  Euphrates,  and  Egypt,  and  sought  also 
to  be  near  to  the  Mediterranean.'  The  like  aim  and  the 
different  methods  of  the  Seleucids  and  the  Lagids  find 
their  true  expression  in  the  similarity  and  the  contrast  of 
Antioch  and  Alexandria  ;  as  the  latter  was  the  centre  for 
the  naval  power  and  the  maritime  policy  of  the  Egyptian 
rulers,  so  Antioch  was  the  centre  for  the  continental  East- 
ern monarchy  of  the  rulers  of  Asia.  The  later  Seleucids 
at  different  times  undertook  large  new  foundations  here, 
so  that  the  city,  when  it  became  Roman,  consisted  of  four 
independent  and  walled-in  districts,  all  of  which  again 
were  enclosed  by  a  common  wall.  Nor  were  immigrants 
from  a  distance  wanting.  When  Greece  proper  fell  under 
the  rule  of  the  Romans,  and  Antiochus  the  Great  had  vain- 
ly attempted  to  dislodge  them  thence,  he  granted  at  least 
to  the  emigrant  Euboeans  and  Aetolians  an  asylum  in  his 
capital.  In  the  capital  of  Syria,  as  in  that  of  Egypt,  a 
commonwealth  in  some  measure  independent  and  a  priv- 
ileged position  were  conceded  to  the  Jews,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  the  towns  as  centres  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  was 
not  the  weakest  element  in  their  development.  Once 
made  a  residency  and  the  seat  of  the  supreme  administra- 
tion of  a  great  empire,  Antioch  remained  even  in  Roman 
times  the  capital  of  the  Asiatic  provinces  of  Rome.  Here 
resided  the  emperors,  when  they  sojourned  in  the  East,  and 
regularly  the  governor  of  Syria  ;  here  was  struck  the  im- 
perial money  for  the  East,  and  here  especially,  as  well  as  in 
Damascus  and  Edessa,  were  found  the  imperial  manufac- 
tories of  arms.  It  is  true  that  the  town  had  lost  its  mili- 
itary  importance  for  the  Roman  empire ;  and  under  the 

^  This  is  said  by  Diodorus,  xx.  47,  of  the  forerunner  of  Antioch, 
the  town  of  Antigonea,  situated  about  five  miles  farther  up  the  river. 
Antioch  was  for  the  Syria  of  antiquity  nearly  what  Aleppo  is  for  the 
Syria  of  the  present  day,  the  rendezvous  of  inland  traffic  ;  only  that, 
in  the  case  of  that  foundation,  as  the  contemporary  construction  of 
the  port  of  Seleucia  shows,  the  immediate  connection  with  the  Med- 
iterranean was  designed,  and  hence  the  town  was  laid  out  farther 
to  the  west. 


140 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


changed  circumstances  the  bad  communication  with  the 
sea  was  felt  as  a  great  evil,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the 
distance,  as  because  the  port^ — the  town  of  Seleucia, 
planned  at  the  same  time  with  Antioch — was  little  fitted 
for  large  traffic.  The  Koman  emperors  from  the  Flavians 
down  to  Constantius  expended  enormous  sums  to  hew  out 
of  the  masses  of  rocks  surrounding  this  locality  the  requi- 
site docks  with  their  tributary  canals,  and  to  provide  suf- 
ficient piers  ;  but  the  art  of  the  engineers,  which  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Nile  had  succeeded  in  throwing  up  the  high- 
est mounds,  contended  vainly  in  Syria  with  the  insur- 
mountable difficulties  of  the  ground.  As  a  matter  of 
course  the  largest  town  of  Syria  took  an  active  part  in  the 
manufactures  and  the  commerce  of  this  province,  of  which 
we  shall  have  to  speak  further  on  ;  nevertheless  it  was  a 
seat  of  consumers  more  than  of  producers. 

In  no  city  of  antiquity  was  the  enjoyment  of  life  so 
much  the  main  thing,  and  its  duties  so  inci- 
dental, as  in  "Antioch  upon  Daphne,"  as  the 
city  was  significantly  called,  somewhat  as  if  we  should  say 
"Vienna  upon  the  Prater."  For  Daphne'  was  a  pleasure- 
garden,  about  five  miles  from  the  city,  ten  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, famous  for  its  laurel-trees,  after  which  it  was 
named,  for  its  old  cypresses  which  even  the  Christian  em- 
perors ordered  to  be  spared,  for  its  flowing  and  gushing 
waters,  for  its  shining  temple  of  Apollo,  and  its  magnifi- 
cent much-frequented  festival  of  the  10th  August.  The 
whole  environs  of  the  city,  which  lies  between  two  wooded 
mountain-chains  in  the  valley  of  the  Orontes  abounding  in 
water,  fourteen  miles  upward  from  its  mouth,  are  even  at 
the  present  day,  in  spite  of  all  neglect,  a  blooming  garden 
and  one  of  the  most  charming  spots  on  earth.  No  city  in 
^  The  space  between  Antiocli  and  Daplme  was  filled  witli  country- 
houses  and  villas  (Libanius,  pro  rhetor,  ii.  p.  213  Reiske),  and  there 
was  also  here  a  suburb  Heraclea  or  else  Daphne  (0.  Miiller,  Antiq. 
Antioch,  p.  44 ;  comp.  tita  Veri,  7)  ;  but  when  Tacitus,  Ann.  ii.  83, 
names  this  suburb  Epidaphne,  this  is  one  of  his  most  singular  blun- 
ders. Plinius,  II.  iV.  v.  27,  79,  says  correctly:  Antiochia  Epi- 
daphnes  cognominata. 


Chap.  X.]         Land  of  the  Nabataeans, 


141 


all  the  empire  excelled  it  in  the  splendoui?  and  magnifi- 
cence of  its  public  structures.  The  chief  street,  which  to 
the  length  of  thirty-six  stadia,  nearly  four  and  a  half 
miles,  with  a  covered  colonnade  on  both  sides,  and  a  broad 
carriage-way  in  the  middle,  traversed  the  city  in  a  straight 
direction  along  the  river,  was  imitated  in  many  ancient 
towns,  but  had  not  its  match  even  in  imperial  Kome.  As 
the  water  ran  into  every  good  house  in  Antioch,'  so  the 
people  walked  in  those  colonnades  through  the  whole  city 
at  all  seasons  protected  from  rain  as  from  the  heat  of  the 
sun,  and  during  the  evening  also  in  lighted  streets,  of 
which  we  have  no  record  as  to  any  other  city  of  antiq- 
uity.' 

^  "That  wherein  we  especially  beat  all,"  says  the  Antiochene  Li- 
"banius,  in  the  Panegyric  on  his  home  delivered  under  Constantius 
(i.  354  R.),  after  having  described  the  springs  of  Daphne  and  the 
aqueducts  thence  to  the  city,  is  the  water-supply  of  our  city  ;  if  in 
other  respects  any  one  may  compete  with  us,  all  give  way  so  soon  as 
we  come  to  speak  of  the  water,  its  abundance  and  its  excellence.  In 
the  public  baths  every  stream  has  the  proportions  of  a  river,  in  the 
private  several  have  the  like,  and  the  rest  not  much  less.  He  who 
has  the  means  of  laying  out  a  new  bath  does  so  without  concern 
about  a  sufficient  flow  of  water,  and  has  no  need  to  fear  that,  when 
ready,  it  will  remain  dry.  Therefore  every  district  of  the  city  (there 
were  eighteen  of  these)  carefully  provides  for  the  special  elegance 
of  its  bathing-establishment  ;  these  district  bathing-establishments 
are  so  much  finer  than  the  general  ones,  as  they  are  smaller  than 
these  are,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  strive  to  surpass  one  an- 
other. One  measures  the  abundance  of  running  water  by  the  num- 
ber of  the  (good)  dwelling-houses  ;  for  as  many  as  are  the  dwelling- 
houses,  so  many  are  also  the  running  waters,  nay  there  are  even  in 
individual  houses  often  several ;  and  the  majority  of  the  workshops 
have  also  the  same  advantage.  Therefore  we  have  no  fighting  at 
the  public  wells  as  to  who  shall  come  first  to  draw — an  evil,  under 
which  so  many  considerable  towns  suffer,  when  there  is  a  violent 
crowding  round  the  wells  and  outcry  over  the  broken  jars.  With 
us  the  public  fountains  flow  for  ornament,  since  every  one  has  water 
within  his  doors.  And  this  water  is  so  clear  that  the  pail  appears 
empty,  and  so  pleasant  that  it  invites  us  to  drink." 

^  "Other  lights,"  says  the  same  orator,  p.  363,  "take  the  place 
of  the  sun's  light,  lamps  which  leave  the  Egyptian  festival  of  illu- 
mination far  behind  ;  and  with  us  night  is  distinguished  from  day 


14:2 


Syria  and  the  [Book  VIII. 


But  amidst  all  this  luxury  the  Muses  did  not  find  them- 
selves at  home  ;  science  in  earnest  and  not 
terests!'*^^*^  -^^^^  earnest  art  were  never  truly  cultivated  in 
Syria  and  more  especially  in  Antioch.  How- 
ever complete  was  the  analogy  in  other  respects  between 
Egypt  and  Syria  as  to  their  development,  their  contrast  in 
a  Uterary  point  of  view  was  sharp  ;  the  Lagids  alone  en- 
tered on  this  portion  of  the  inheritance  of  Alexander  the 
Great.  While  they  fostered  Hellenic  literature  and  pro- 
moted scientific  research  in  an  Aristotelian  sense  and 
spirit,  the  better  Seleucids  doubtless  by  their  political  po- 
sition opened  up  the  East  to  the  Greeks — the  mission  of 
Megasthenes  to  king  Chandragupta  in  India  on  the  part 
of  Seleucus  I.,  and  the  exploring  of  the  Caspian  Sea  by 
his  contemporary  the  Admiral  Patrocles,  were  epoch-mak- 
ing in  this  respect — but  of  immediate  interposition  in  lit- 
erary interests  on  the  part  of  the  Seleucids  the  history  of 
Greek  literature  has  nothing  more  to  tell  than  that  An- 
tiochus  the  Great,  as  he  was  called,  made  the  poet  Eu- 
phorion  his  librarian.  Perhaps  the  history  of  Latin  liter- 
ature may  make  a  claim  to  serious  scientific  work  on  the 
part  of  Berytus,  the  Latin  island  in  the  sea  of  Oriental 
Hellenism.  It  is  perhaps  no  accident  that  the  reaction 
against  the  modernising  tendency  in  literature  of  the  Ju- 
lio-Claudian  epoch,  and  the  reintroduction  of  the  language 
and  writings  of  the  republican  time  into  the  school  as  into 
literature,  originated  with  a  Berytian  belonging  to  the 
middle  class,  Marcus  Valerius  Probus,  who  in  the  schools 
that  were  left  in  his  remote  home  moulded  himself  still  on 
the  old  classics,  and  then,  in  energetic  activity  more  as  a 
critical  author  than  as  strictly  a  teacher,  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  classicism  of  the  later  imperial  period.  The 
same  Berytus  became  later,  and  remained  through  the 

only  by  the  difference  of  the  lighting  ;  diligent  hands  find  no  dif- 
ference and  forge  on,  and  he  who  will  sings  and  dances,  so  that  He- 
phaestos  and  Aphrodite  here  share  the  night  between  them."  In 
the  street-sport  which  the  prince  Gallus  indulged  in,  the  lamps  of 
Antioch  were  very  inconvenient  to  him  (Ammianus,  xiv.  1,  9). 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


143 


whole  period  of  the  empire,  for  all  the  East,  the  seat  of 
the  study  of  jurisprudence  requisite  towards  an  official 
career.  As  to  Hellenic  literature  no  doubt  the  poetry  of 
the  epigram  and  the  wit  of  the  feuilleton  were  at  home  in 
Syria  ;  several  of  the  most  noted  Greek  minor  poets,  like 
Meleager,  Philodemus  of  Gadara,  and  Antipater  of  Sidon, 
were  Syrians  and  unsurpassed  in  sensuous  charm  as  in  re- 
fined versification  ;  and  the  father  of  ihe  feuilleton  litera- 
ture was  Menippus  of  Gadara.  But  these  performances 
lie  for  the  most  part  before,  and  some  of  them  consider- 
ably before,  the  imperial  period. 

In  the  Greek  literature  of  this  epoch  no  province  is  so 
poorly  represented  as  Syria ;  and  this  is  hardly 
Minor  literature.  accidcnt,  although.  Considering  the  univer- 
sal position  of  Hellenism  under  the  empire,  not  much 
stress  can  be  laid  on  the  home  of  the  individual  writers. 
On  the  other  hand  the  subordinate  authorship  which  pre- 
vailed in  this  epoch — such  as  stories  of  love,  robbers,  pi- 
rates, procurers,  soothsayers,  and  dreams,  destitute  of 
thought  or  form,  and  fabulous  travels— had  probably  its 
chief  seat  here.  Among  the  colleagues  of  the  already- 
mentioned  Jamblichus,  author  of  the  Babylonian  history, 
his  countrymen  must  have  been  numerous  ;  the  contact  of 
this  Greek  literature  with  the  Oriental  literature  of  a  simi- 
lar kind  doubtless  took  place  through  the  medium  of 
Syrians.  The  Greeks  indeed  had  no  need  to  learn  lying 
from  the  Orientals  ;  yet  the  no  longer  plastic  but  fanciful 
story-telling  of  their  later  period  has  sprung  from  Sche- 
herazade's horn  of  plenty  not  from  the  pleasantry  of  the 
Graces.  It  is  perhaps  not  accidentally  that  the  satire  of  this 
period,  when  it  views  Homer  as  the  father  of  lying  travels, 
makes  him  a  Babylonian  with  the  proper  name  of  Tigranes. 
Apart  from  this  entertaining  reading,  of  which  even  those 
were  somewhat  ashamed  who  spent  their  time  in  writing 
or  reading  it,  there  is  hardly  any  other  prominent  name  to 
be  mentioned  from  these  regions  than  the  contemporary 
of  that  Jamblichus,  Lucian  of  Commagene.  He,  too,  wrote 
nothing  except,  in  imitation  of  Menippus,  essays  and  fugi- 


/Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


tive  pieces  after  a  genuinely  Syrian  type,  witty  and  spright- 
ly in  personal  banter,  but  wliere  this  is  at  an  end,  incap- 
able of  saying  amid  his  laughter  the  earnest  truth  or  of 
even  handling  the  plastic  power  of  comedy. 

This  people  valued  only  the  day.    No  Greek  region  has 

so  few  memorial-stones  to  show  as  Syria  ;  the 
?muLmentsI'    g^eat  Autioch,  the  third  city  in  the  empire,  has— 

to  say  nothing  of  the  land  of  hieroglyphics  and 
obelisks — left  behind  fewer  inscriptions  than  many  a  small 
African  or  Arabian  village.  With  the  exception  of  the 
rhetorician  Libanius  from  the  time  of  Julian,  who  is  more 
well-known  than  important,  this  town  has  not  given  to 
literature  a  single  author's  name.  The  Tyanitic  Messiah 
of  heathenism,  or  his  apostle  speaking  for  him,  was  not 
wrong  in  terming  the  Antiochenes  an  uncultivated  and 
half-barbarous  people,  and  in  thinking  that  Apollo  would 
do  well  to  transform  them  as  well  as  their  Daphne  ;  for 
*'in  Antioch,  while  the  cypresses  knew  how  to  whisper,  men 
knew  not  how  to  speak."  In  the  artistic  sphere  Antroch 
had  a  leading  position  only  as  respected  the  theatre  and 
sports  generally.  The  exhibitions  which  captivated  the 
public  of  Antioch  were,  according  to  the  fashion  of  this 
time,  less  strictly  dramatic  than  noisy  musical  perform- 
ances, ballets,  animal  hunts,  and  gladiatorial  games.  The 
applauding  or  hissing  of  this  public  decided  the  reputation 
of  the  dancer  throughout  the  empire.  The  jockeys  and 
other  heroes  of  the  circus  and  theatre  came  pre-eminently 
from  Syria.  *  The  b^iUet-dancers  and  the  musicians,  as  well 

'  The  remarkable  description  of  tlie  empire  from  the  time  of  Con- 
stantius  (Miiller,  Geog.  Min.  ii.  p.  213  ff. ),  the  only  writing  of  the 
kind  in  which  the  state  of  industry  meets  with  a  certain  consider- 
ation, says  of  Syria  in  this  respect:  "Antioch  has  everything  that 
one  desires  in  abundance,  but  especially  its  races.  Laodicea,  Bery- 
tus,  Tyre,  Caesarea  (in  Palestine)  have  races  also.  Laodicea  sends 
abroad  jockeys,  Tyre  and  Berytus  actors,  Caesarea  dancers  ( jpanto- 
mimi),  Heliopolis  on  Lebanon  flute-players  {clioraulae),  Gaza  mu, 
sicians  {auditores^  by  which  aKpo&aara  is  incorrectly  rendered),  As. 
calon  wrestlers  (athletae),  Castabala  (strictly  speaking  in  Cilicia) 
boxers." 


CnAr.  X.]         Land  of  the  Nabataeans.  145 


as  the  jugglers  and  buffoons,  whom  Lucius  Varus  brought 
back  from  his  Oriental  campaign — performed,  so  far  as  his 
part  went,  in  Antioch — to  Eome,  formed  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  Italian  theatricals.  The  passion  with  which  the 
public  in  Antioch  gave  itself  up  to  this  pleasure  is  charac- 
teristically shown  by  the  fact,  that  according  to  tradition 
the  gravest  disaster  which  befell  Antioch  in  this  period,  its 
capture  by  the  Persians  in  260  (p.  109),  surprised  the  bur- 
gesses of  the  city  in  the  theatre,  and  from  the  top  of  the 
mount,  on  the  slope  of  which  it  was  constructed,  the  arrows 
flew  into  the  ranks  of  the  spectators.  In  Gaza,  the  most 
southerly  town  of  Syria,  where  heathenism  possessed  a 
stronghold  in  the  famous  temple  of  Marnas,  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  century  the  horses  of  a  zealous  heathen  and  of  a 
zealous  Christian  ran  at  the  races,  and,  when  on  that  occa- 
sion "Christ  beat  Marnas,"  St.  Jerome  tells  us,  numerous 
heathens  had  themselves  baptised. 

All  the  great  cities  of  the  Roman  empire  doubtless  vied 
with  each  other  in  dissoluteness  of  morals ; 
Immorality,  palm   probably  belongs  to 

Antioch.  The  decorous  Roman,  whom  the  severe  moral- 
portrait-painter  of  Trajan's  time  depicts,  as  he  turns  his 
back  on  his  native  place,  because  it  had  become  a  city  of 
Greeks,  adds  that  the  Achaeans  formed  the  least  part  of  the 
filth ;  that  the  Syrian  Orontes  had  long  discharged  itself 
into  the  river  Tiber,  and  flooded  Rome  with  its  language 
and  its  habits,  its  street-musicians,  female  harp-players 
and  triangle-beaters,  and  the  troops  of  its  courtesans. 
The  Romans  of  Augustus  spoke  of  the  Syrian  female 
flute-player,  the  ambubaia,^  as  we  speak  of  the  Parisian 
cocoUe.  In  the  Syrian  cities,  it  is  stated  even  in  the  last 
age  of  the  republic  by  Posidonius,  an  author  of  impor- 
tance, who  was  himself  a  native  of  the  Syrian  Apamea, 
the  citizens  have  become  disused  to  hard  labour ;  the  peo- 
ple there  think  only  of  feasting  and  carousing,  and  all  clubs 
and  private  parties  serve  for  this  purpose ;  at  the  royal 
table  a  garland  is  put  on  every  guest,  and  the  latter  is 
'  From  the  Syrian  word  abbuho,  fife. 
Vol.  II.— 10 


146 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


then  sprinkled  with  Babylonian  perfume ;  flute-playing 
and  harp-playing  sound  through  the  streets ;  the  gymnas- 
tic institutes  are  converted  into  hot  baths — by  the  latter 
is  meant  the  institution  of  the  so-called  Thermae,  which 
probably  first  emerged  in  Syria  and  subsequently  became 
general ;  they  were  in  substance  a  combination  of  the 
gymnasium  and  the  hot-bath.  Four  hundred  years  later 
matters  went  on  after  quite  a  similar  fashion  in  Antioch. 
The  quarrel  between  Julian  and  these  townsmen  arose  not 
so  much  about  the  emperor's  beard,  as  because  in  this 
city  of  taverns,  which,  as  he  expresses  himself,  has  noth- 
ing in  view  but  dancing  and  drinking,  he  regulated  the 
prices  for  the  hosts.  The  religious  system  of  the  Syrian 
land  was  also,  and  especially,  pervaded  by  these  dissolute 
and  sensuous  doings.  The  cultus  of  the  Syrian  gods  was 
often  an  appanage  of  the  Syrian  brothel.^ 

It  would  be  unjust  to  make  the  Eoman  government 

responsible  for  this  state  of  affairs  in  Syria ; 
ridSuie.^''^      it  had  been  the  same  under  the  government 

of  the  Diadochi,  and  was  merely  transmitted 
to  the  Romans.  But  in  the  history  of  this  age  the  Syro- 
Hellenic  element  was  an  essential  factor,  and,  although  its 
indirect  influence  was  of  far  more  weight,  it  still  in  many 
ways  made  itself  preceptible  directly  in  politics.  Of  polit- 
ical partisanship  proper  there  can  be  still  less  talk  in  the 
case  of  the  Antiochenes  of  this  and  every  age,  than  in  the 
case  of  the  burgesses  of  the  other  great  cities  of  the  em- 
pire ;  but  in  mocking  and  disputation  they  apparently 
excelled  all  others,  even  the  Alexandrians  that  vied  with 
them  in  this  respect.  They  never  made  a  revolution, 
but  readily  and  earnestly  supported  every  pretender 
whom  the  Syrian  army  set  up,  Vespasian  against  Vitellius, 

The  little  treatise,  ascribed  to  Lucian,  as  to  the  Syrian  goddess 
at  Hierapolis  adored  by  all  the  East,  furnishes  a  specimen  of  the 
wild  and  voluptuous  fable-telling  which  was  characteristic  of  the 
Syrian  cultus.  In  this  narrative — the  source  of  Wieland's  Kom- 
babus — self-mutilation  is  at  once  celebrated  and  satirised  in  turn 
as  an  act  of  high  morality  and  of  pious  faith. 


Chap.  X.]  Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


14Y 


Casius  against  Marcus,  Niger  against  Severus,  always 
ready,  where  they  thought  that  they  had  support  in  reserve, 
to  renounce  allegiance  to  the  existing  government.  The 
only  talent  which  indisputably  belonged  to  them — their 
mastery  of  ridicule — they  exercised  not  merely  against 
the  actors  of  their  stage,  but  no  less  against  the  rulers 
sojourning  in  the  capital  of  the  East,  and  the  ridicule  was 
quite  the  same  against  the  actor  as  against  the  emperor  ; 
it  applied  to  personal  appearance  and  to  individual  pecu- 
liarities, just  as  if  their  sovereign  appeared  only  to  amuse 
them  with  his  part.  Thus  there  existed  between  the 
public  of  Antioch  and  their  rulers — particularly  those 
who  spent  a  considerable  time  there,  Hadrian,  Verus, 
Marcus,  Severus,  Julian — so  to  speak,  a  perpetual  warfare 
of  sarcasm,  one  document  of  which,  the  reply  of  the  last 
named  emperor  to  the  beard-mockers  "  of  Antioch,  is 
still  preserved.  While  this  imperial  man  of  letters  met 
their  sarcastic  sayings  with  satirical  writings,  the  Antio- 
chenes  at  other  times  had  to  pay  more  severely  for  their 
evil  speaking  and  their  other  sins.  Thus  Hadrian  with- 
drew from  them  the  right  of  coining  silver ;  Marcus 
withdrew  the  right  of  assembly,  and  closed  for  some 
time  the  theatre.  Severus  took  even  from  the  town  the 
primacy  of  Syria,  and  transferred  it  to  Laodicea,  which 
was  in  constant  neighbourly  warfare  with  the  capital ; 
and,  if  these  two  ordinances  were  soon  again  withdrawn, 
the  partition  of  the  province,  which  Hadrian  had  already 
threatened,  was  carried  into  execution,  as  we  have  already 
said  (p.  129),  under  Severus,  and  not  least  because  the 
government  wished  to  humble  the  turbulent  great  city. 
This  city  even  made  a  mockery  of  its  final  overthrow. 
When  in  the  year  540  the  Persian  king  Chosroes  Nushir- 
van  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Antioch  he  was  received 
from  its  battlements  not  merely  with  showers  of  arrows 
but  with  the  usual  obscene  sarcasms  ;  and,  provoked  by 
this,  the  king  not  merely  took  the  town  by  storm,  but 
carried  also  its  inhabitants  away  to  his  New-Antioch  in 
the  province  of  Susa, 


148 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


The  brilliant  aspect  of  the  condition  of  Syria  was  the 
economic  one  ;  in  manufactures  and  trades 
Culture  of  the  g^j,-^  ^^^^^  alongside  of  Egypt,  the  first  place 
among  the  provinces  of  the  Koman  empire, 
and  even  claims  in  a  certain  respect  precedence  over 
Egypt.  Agriculture  throve  under  the  permanent  state  of 
peace,  and  under  a  sagacious  administration  which  di- 
rected its  efforts  particularly  to  the  advancement  of  irriga- 
tion, to  an  extent  which  puts  to  shame  modern  civilisa- 
tion. No  doubt  various  parts  of  Syria  are  still  at  the 
present  day  of  the  utmost  luxuriance  ;  the  valley  of  the 
lower  Orontes,  the  rich  garden  round  Tripolis  with  its 
groups  of  palms,  groves  of  oranges,  copses  of  pomegran- 
ates and  jasmine,  the  fertile  coast-plain  north  and  south 
of  Gaza,  neither  the  Bedouins  nor  the  Pashas  have  hither- 
to been  able  to  make  desolate.  But  their  work  is  never- 
theless not  to  be  estimated  lightly.  Apamea  in  the  middle 
of  the  Orontes  valley,  now  a  rocky  wilderness  without 
fields  and  trees,  where  the  poor  flocks  on  the  scanty  past- 
urages are  decimated  by  the  robbers  of  the  mountains,  is 
strewed  far  and  wide  with  ruins,  and  there  is  document- 
ary attestation  that  under  Quirinius  the  governor  of  Syria, 
the  same  who  is  named  in  the  Gospels,  this  town  with  its 
territory  included  numbered  117,000  free  inhabitants. 
Beyond  question  the  whole  valley  of  the  Orontes  abound- 
ing in  water — already  at  Hemesa  it  is  from  30  to  40 
metres  broad  and  one  and  a  half  to  three  metres  deep — 
was  once  a  great  seat  of  cultivation.  But  even  of  the  dis- 
tricts, which  are  now  mere  deserts,  and  where  it  seems  to 
the  traveller  of  the  present  day  impossible  for  man  to  live 
and  thrive,  a  considerable  portion  was  formerly  a  field  of 
labour  for  active  hands.  To  the  east  of  Hemesa,  where 
there  is  now  not  a  green  leaf  nor  a  drop  of  water,  the 
heavy  basalt-slabs  of  former  oil-presses  are  found  in  quan- 
tities. While  at  the  present  day  olives  scantily  grow  only 
in  the  valleys  of  the  Lebanon  abounding  in  springs,  the 
olive  woods  must  formerly  have  stretched  far  beyond  the 
valley  of  the  Orontes.    The  traveller  now  from  Hemesa  to 


Chap.  X.]  Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


149 


Palmyra  carries  water  with  liim  on  the  back  of  camels, 
and  all  this  part  of  the  route  is  covered  with  the  remains 
of  former  villas  and  hamlets.'  The  march  of  Aurelian 
along  this  route  (p.  119)  no  army  could  now  undertake. 
Of  what  is  at  present  called  desert  a  good  portion  is 
rather  the  laying  waste  of  the  blessed  labour  of  better 
times.  "All  Syria,"  says  a  description  of  the  earth  from 
the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  "  overflows  with  corn, 
wine,  and  oil."  But  Syria  was  not  even  in  antiquity  an  ex- 
porting land,  in  a  strict  sense,  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
like  Egypt  and  Africa,  although  the  noble  wines  were  sent 
away,  e.g.  that  of  Damascus  to  Persia,  those  of  Laodicea, 
Ascalon,  Gaza,  to  Egypt  and  from  thence  as  far  as 
Ethiopia  and  India,  and  even  the  Komans  knew  how  to 
value  the  wine  of  Byblus,  of  Tyre,  and  of  Gaza. 

Of  far  more  importance  for  the  general  position  of  the 
province  were  the  Syrian  manufactures.  A 

Manufactures.  .         p«ti.  i«t  -i  , 

series  oi  industries,  which  came  into  account 
for  export,  were  here  at  home,  especially  of  linen,  purple, 
silk,  glass.  The  weaving  of  flax,  practised  from  of  old  in 
Babylonia,  was  early  transplanted  thence  to  Syria  ;  as  that 
description  of  the  earth  says  :  "  Scytopolis  (in  Palestine), 
Laodicea,  Byblus,  Tyrus,  Berytus,  send  out  their  linen 
into  all  the  world,"  and  in  the  tariff-law  of  Diocletian  ac- 
cordingly there  are  adduced  as  fine  linen  goods  those  of 
the  three  first-named  towns  alongside  of  those  of  the 

'  The  Austrian  engineer,  Joseph  Tschernik  (Petermann's  Geogr. 
Mittheil.  1875,  Erganzungsheft,  xliv.  p.  3,  9)  found  basalt-slabs  of  oil- 
presses  not  merely  on  the  desert  plateau  at  Kala'at  el-Hossn  be- 
tween Hemesa  and  the  sea,  but  also  to  the  number  of  more  than 
twenty  eastward  from  Hemesa  at  el-Ferklus,  where  the  basalt  itself 
does  not  occur,  as  well  as  numerous  walled  terraces  and  mounds  of 
ruins  at  the  same  place ;  with  terracings  on  the  whole  stretch  of 
seventy  miles  between  Hemesa  and  Palmyra.  Sachau  {Reise  in 
,8yrien  und  Mesopotamien,  1883,  p.  23,  55)  found  remains  of  aque- 
'  ducts  at  different  places  of  the  route  from  Damascus  to  Palmyra.  The 
■cisterns  of  Aradus  cut  in  the  rock,  already  mentioned  by  Strabo 
;(xvi.  2,  13,  p.  753),  still  perform  their  service  at  the  present  day 
■(Renan,  Phenicie^  p.  40). 


150 


Syria  and  the 


fBooK  VIII. 


neighbouring  Tarsus  and  of  Egypt,  and  the  Syrian  have 
precedence  over  all.  That  the  purple  of  Tyre,  however 
many  competitors  with  it  arose,  always  retained  the  first 
place,  is  well  known  ;  and  besides  the  Tyrian  there  were 
in  Syria  numerous  purple  dyeworks  likewise  famous  on 
the  coast  above  and  below  Tyre  at  Sarepta,  Dora,  Caesa- 
rea,  even  in  the  interior,  in  the  Palestinian  Neapolis  and 
in  Lydda.  The  raw  silk  came  at  this  epoch  from  China 
and  especially  by  way  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  so  to 
Syria  ;  it  was  worked  up  chiefly  in  the  looms  of  Berytus 
and  of  Tyre,  in  which  latter  place  especially  was  prepared 
the  purple  silk  that  was  much  in  use  and  brought  a  high 
price.  The  glass  manufactures  of  Sidon  maintained  their 
primitive  fame  in  the  imperial  age,  and  numerous  glass- 
vases  of  our  museums  bear  the  stamp  of  a  Sidonian  man- 
ufacturer. 

To  the  sale  of  these  wares,  which  from  their  nature 
belonged  to  the  market  of  the  world,  fell  to 
be  added  the  whole  mass  of  goods  which  came 
from  the  East  by  the  Euphrates-routes  to  the  West.  It 
is  true  that  the  Arabian  and  Indian  imports  at  this  time 
turned  away  from  this  road,  and  took  chiefly  the  route  by 
way  of  Egypt  ;  but  not  merely  did  the  Mesopotamian 
traffic  remain  necessarily  with  the  Syrians ;  the  emporia 
also  at  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates  stood  in  regular  cara- 
van-intercourse with  Palmyra  (p.  106),  and  thus  made  use 
of  the  Syrian  harbours.  How  considerable  this  intercourse 
was  with  the  eastern  neighbours  is  shown  by  nothing  so 
clearly  as  by  the  similarity  of  the  silver  coinage  in  the 
Eoman  East  and  in  the  Parthian  Babylonia  ;  in  the  prov- 
inces of  Syria  and  Cappadocia  the  Roman  government 
coined  silver,  varying  from  the  imperial  currency,  after 
the  sorts  and  the  standards  of  the  neighbouring  empire. 
The  Syrian  manufactures  themselves,  e.g.  of  linen  and 
silk,  were  stimulated  by  the  very  import  of  the  similar 
Babylonian  articles  of  commerce,  and,  like  these,  the 
leather  and  skin  goods,  the  ointments,  the  spices,  the  slaves 
of  the  East,  came  during  the  imperial  period  to  a  very 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


151 


considerable  extent  by  way  of  Syria  to  Italy  and  the  "West 
in  general.  But  this  always  remained  characteristic  of 
these  primitive  seats  of  commercial  intercourse,  that  the 
men  of  Sidon  and  their  countrymen,  in  this  matter  very 
different  from  the  Egyptians,  not  merely  sold  their  goods 
to  those  of  other  lands,  but  themselves  conveyed  them 
thither,  and,  as  the  ship-captains  in  Syria  formed  a  prom- 
inent and  respected  class,'  so  Syrian  merchants  and  Syrian 
factories  in  the  imperial  period  were  to  be  found  nearly  as 
much  everywhere  as  in  the  remote  times  of  which  Homer 
tells.  The  Tyrians  had  such  factories  in  the  two  great 
import-harbours  of  Italy,  Ostia  and  Puteoli,  and,  as  these 
themselves  in  their  documents  describe  their  establish- 
ments as  the  greatest  and  most  spacious  of  their  kind,  so 
in  the  description  of  the  earth  which  we  have  often  quoted, 
Tyre  is  named  the  first  place  of  the  East  for  commerce 
and  trafl&c  ;^  in  like  manner  Strabo  brings  forward  as 
a  specialty  at  Tyre  and  at  Aradus  the  unusually  high 
houses,  consisting  of  many  stories.  Berytus  and  Damas- 
cus, and  certainly  many  other  Syrian  and  Phoenician  com- 
mercial towns,  had  similar  factories  in  the  Italian  ports.  ^ 

'  In  Aradus,  a  town  very  populous  in  Strabo's  time  (xvi.  2,  13,  p. 
753),  there  appears  under  Augustus  a  TrpofiovAos  tcou  vavapx'n(T0Lvr(»)v 
(C.  1.  Gr.  4736 /i,  better  in  Renan,  Mission  de  Phenicie,  p.  31). 

^  Totius  orbis  descripUo,  c.  24 :  nulla  forte  civitas  Orientis  est  eius 
spissior  in  negotio.  The  documents  of  the  statio  ( 0.  I.  Gr.  5853  ; 
0.  I.  L.  X.  1601)  give  a  lively  picture  of  these  factories.  They 
serve  in  the  first  instance  for  religous  ends,  that  is,  for  the  worship 
of  the  Tyrian  gods  at  a  foreign  place  ;  for  this  object  a  tax  is  levied 
at  the  larger  station  of  Ostia  from  the  Tyrian  mariners  and  mer- 
chants, and  from  its  produce  there  is  granted  to  the  lesser  a  yearly 
contribution  of  1,000  sesterces,  which  is  employed  for  the  rent  of 
the  place  of  meeting  ;  the  other  expenses  are  raised  by  the  Tyrians 
in  Puteoli,  doubtless  by  voluntary  contributions. 

^  For  Berytus  this  is  shown  by  the  Puteolan  inscription  G.  I.  L. 
X.  1634  ;  for  Damascus  it  is  at  least  suggested  by  that  which  is 
there  set  up  (x.  1576)  to  the  lupiter  optimus  maximus  Damascenus. 
— We  may  add  that  it  is  here  apparent  with  how  good  reason  Pu- 
teoli is  called  Little  Delos.  At  Delos  in  the  last  age  of  its  pros- 
perity, that  is,  nearly  in  the  century  before  the  Mithradatic  war, 


152 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


Accordingly  we  find,  particularly  in  the  later  period  of  the 
empire,  Syrian  merchants,  chiefly  Apamean,  settled  not 
merely  in  all  Italy  but  likewise  in  all  the  larger  emporia 
of  the  West,  at  Salonae  in  Dalmatia,  Apulum  in  Dacia, 
Malaca  in  Spain,  but  above  all  in  Gaul  and  Germany,  e.g. 
at  Bordeaux,  Lyons,  Paris,  Orleans,  Treves,  so  that  these 
Syrian  Christians  also,  like  the  Jews,  live  according  to 
their  own  customs  and  make  use  of  their  Greek  in  their 
meetings. ' 

we  meet  with  Syrian  factories  and  Syrian  worships  in  quite  a  like 
fashion  and  in  still  greater  abundance  ;  we  find  there  the  guild  of 
the  Herakleistae  of  Tyre  (to  Koivhv  tQv  TupiW  '  Hpa/c AettTToJi/  ifinopau 
Koi  vavKXvpwv,  G.  1.  Or.  2271)  of  the  Poseidoniastae  of  Berytus  (t5 
Koivhu  BvpvTiav  T[o(reidoovia(rT(2u  ifxirSpasv  Koi  vavKXrjpwv  koI  eySoxcoji', 
Bull,  de  corr.  Hell.  vii. ,  p.  468),  of  the  worshippers  of  Adad  and 
Atargatis  of  Heliopolis  {ih.  vi.  495  f.),  apart  from  the  numerous 
memorial-stones  of  Syrian  merchants.  Comp.  Homolle  ih.  viii.  p. 
110  f. 

^  When  Salvianus  (towards  450)  remonstrates  with  the  Christians 
of  Gaul  that  they  are  nothing  better  than  the  heathens,  he  points 
{de  gub.  Dei,  iv.  14,  69)  to  the  worthless  negotiatorum  et  Syricorum 
omnium  turbae,  quae  maiorem  ferme  civitatum  universarum  partem 
occupaverunt.  Gregory  of  Tours  relates  that  king  Guntchram  was 
met  at  Orleans  by  the  whole  body  of  citizens  and  extolled,  as  in 
Latin,  so  also  in  Hebrew  and  in  Syriac  (viii.  1 :  June  lingua  Syro- 
rum,  liinc  Latinorum,  Mnc  ...  .  Judaeorum  in  diversis  lavdibus 
mrie  concrepabat),  and  that  after  a  vacancy  in  the  episcopal  see  of 
Paris  a  Syrian  merchant  knew  how  to  procure  it  for  himself,  and 
gave  away  to  his  countrymen  the  places  belonging  to  it  (x.  26  : 
omnem  scholam  decessoris  sui  abiciens  Syros  de  genere  suo  ecclesiasticae 
domui  ministros  esse  statuit).  Sidonius  (about  450)  describes  the 
perverse  world  of  Ravenna  (Ep.  1,  8)  with  the  words :  fenerantur 
dericiy  Syri  psallunt ;  negotiatores  militant^  monaelii  negotiantur. 
Usque  hodie,  says  Hieronymus  (in  Ezech.  27,  vol.  v.  p.  513  Vail.) 
permanet  in  JSyris  ingeriitus  negotiationis  ardor^  qui  per  totum 
mundum  lucri  cupiditate  discurrunt  et  tantam  mercandi  liabent 
vesaniam,  ut  occupato  nunc  orbe  Romano  (written  towards  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century)  inter  gladios  et  miserorum  neces  quaerant 
dintias  et  paupertatem  periculis  fugiant.  Other  proofs  are  given  by 
Friedlander,  SittengescMchte,  ii.^  p.  67.  Without  doubt  we  may  be 
allowed  to  add  the  numerous  inscriptions  of  the  West  which  pro- 
ceed from  Syrians,  even  if  those  do  not  designate  themselves  ex- 
pressly as  merchants.    Instructive  as  to  this  point  is  the  Coeme- 


Chap.  X.J         Land  of  the  Ndbataeam. 


153 


The  state  of  things  formerly  described  among  the 
Antiochenes  and  the  Syrian  cities  generally  becomes  in- 
telligible only  on  this  basis.  The  world  of  rank  there  con- 
sisted of  rich  manufacturers  and  merchants,  the  bulk  of 
the  population  of  the  labourers  and  the  mariners  and,  as 
later  the  riches  acquired  in  the  East  flowed  to  Genoa  and 
Venice,  so  then  the  commercial  gains  of  the  "West  flowed 
back  to  Tyre  and  Apamea.  With  the  extensive  field  of 
traffic  that  lay  open  to  these  traders  on  a  great  scale,  and 
with  the  on  the  whole  moderate  frontier  and  inland  tolls, 
the  Syrian  export  trade,  embracing  a  great  part  of  the 
most  lucrative  and  most  transportable  articles,  already 
brought  enormous  capital  sums  into  their  hands ;  and 
their  business  was  not  confined  to  native  goods. ^  What 
comfort  of  life  once  prevailed  here  we  learn,  not  from  the 

terium  of  the  small  nortli-Italian  country -town  Concordia  of  the 
fifth  century  ;  the  foreigners  buried  in  it  are  all  Syrians,  mostly  of 
Apamea  (C.  1.  L.  iii.  p.  1060)  ;  likewise  all  the  Greek  inscriptions 
found  in  Treves  belong  to  Syrians  (C.  /.  Gr.  9891,  9892,  9893). 
These  inscriptions  are  not  merely  dated  in  the  Syrian  fashion,  but 
show  also  peculiarities  of  the  dialectic  Greek  there  {Hermes,  xix. 
423). — That  this  Syro-Christian  Diaspora,  standing  in  relation  to 
the  contrast  between  the  Oriental  and  Occidental  clergy,  may  not 
be  confounded  with  the  Jewish  Diaspora,  is  clearly  shown  by  the 
account  in  Gregorius ;  it  evidently  stood  much  higher  and  belonged 
throughout  to  the  better  classes. 

'  This  is  partly  so  even  at  the  present  day.  The  number  of  silk- 
workers  in  Horns  is  estimated  at  8,000  (Tschernik,  I.e.). 

^  One  of  the  oldest  {i.e.  after  Severus  and  before  Diocletian)  epi- 
taphs of  this  sort  is  the  Latin-Greek  one  found  not  far  from  Lyons 
(Wilmanns,  2498  ;  comp.  Lebas-Waddington,  n.  2329)  of  a  ©aT^os  o 
Koi  '  lovKiavhs  2o(£5ot/  (in  Latin  Thaemus  lulianus  Sati  Jil.),  a  native 
of  Atheila  {de  vico  AiJielani),  not  far  from  Cariatha  in  Syria  (still 
called  '  Atil,  not  far  from  Kanawfit  in  the  Hauran),  and  decurio  in 
Canatha,  settled  in  Lyons  {iruTpav  Aelirwu  ^/ce  t<^S'  inl  ^<i)f)cp)^  and  a 
wholesale  trader  there  for  Aquitanian  wares  {[is  irpjaa-iu  ix^^v  eViro- 
p[io]t'  ayopao'juiii' [/ueJcTT^v  e/c'  A/fouiTai'iTjs  clbS'  eVl  KovynvZovvoio — liego- 
tiatori  Luguduni  et  prov.  Aquitanica).  Accordingly  these  Syrian 
merchants  must  not  only  have  dealt  in  Syrian  goods,  but  have,  with 
their  capital  and  their  knowledge  of  business,  practised  wholesale 
trading  generally. 


154  Syria  and  the  [Book  VIH 


scanty  remains  of  the  great  cities  that  have  perished,  but 
from  the  more  forsaken  than  desolated  region  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Orontes,  from  Apamea  on  to  the  point  where 
the  river  turns  towards  the  sea.    In  this  district  of  about 
a  hundred  miles  in  length  there  still  stand  the  ruins  of 
nearly  a  hundred  townships,  with  whole  streets  still  rec- 
ognisable, the  buildings  with  the  exception  of  the  roofs 
executed  in  massive  stone-work,  the  dwelling-houses,  sur- 
rounded by  colonnades,  embellished  with  galleries  and 
balconies,  windows  and  portals  richly  and  often  tastefully 
decorated  with  stone  arabesques,  with  gardens  and  baths 
laid  out,  with  farm-offices  in  the  ground-story,  stables, 
wine  and  oil  presses  hewn  in  the  rocks,'  as  also  large 
burial  chambers  likewise  hewn  in  the  rock,  filled  with 
sarcophagi,  and  with  the  entrances  adorned  with  pillars. 
Traces  of  public  life  are  nowhere  met  with  ;  it  is  the 
country-dwellings  of  the  merchants  and  of  the  manufac- 
turers of  Apamea  and  Antioch,  whose  assured  prosperity 
and  solid  enjoyment  of  life  are  attested  by  these  ruins. 
These  settlements,  of  quite  a  uniform  character,  belong 
throughout  to  the  late  times  of  the  empire,  the  oldest  to 
the   beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  the  latest  to  the 
middle  of  the  sixth,  immediately  before  the  onslaught  of 
Islam,  under  which  this  prosperous  and  flourishing  life 
succumbed.    Christian  symbols  and  Biblical  language  are 
everywhere  met  with,  and  likewise  stately  churches  and 
ecclesiastical  structures.     The  development  of  culture, 
however,  did  not  begin  merely  under  Constantine,  but 
simply  grew  and  became  consolidated  in  those  centuries. 
Certainly  those  stone-buildings  were  preceded  by  similiar 
villa  and  garden  structures  of  a  less  enduring  kind.  The 
regeneration  of  the  imperial  government  after  the  confused 
troubles  of  the  third  century  has  its  expression  in  the  up- 
ward impulse  which  the  Syrian  mercantile  world  then  re- 
ceived ;  but  up  to  a  certain  degree  this  picture  of  it  left 
to  us  may  be  referred  also  to  the  earlier  imperial  period. 

^  Characteristic  is  tlie  Latin  epigram  on  a  press-liouse  0.  /.  L.  iii. 
188,  in  this  home  of  the  "  Apamean  grape  "  {vita  Elagabali,  c.  21). 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


155 


The  relations  of  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire were  so  pecuHar  and,  one  might  say,  so 
little  dependent  on  the  province  which  was 
named  in  the  earlier  period  after  them,  in  the  later  rather 
by  the  revived  ^ame  of  the  Philistaeans  or  Palaestinenses, 
that,  as  we  have  already  said,  it  appeared  more  suitable  to 
treat  of  them  in  a  separate  section.  The  little  which  is  to 
be  remarked  as  to  the  land  of  Palestine,  especially  the  not 
unimportant  share  of  its  maritime  and  partly  also  of  its 
inland  towns  in  Syrian  industry  and  Syrian  trade,  has  al- 
ready been  mentioned  in  the  exposition  given  above  of 
these  matters.  The  Jewish  Diaspora  had  already,  before 
the  destruction  of  the  temple,  extended  in  such  a  way  that 
Jerusalem,  even  while  it  still  stood,  was  more  a  symbol  than 
a  home,  very  much  as  the  city  of  Rome  was  for  the  so-called 
Roman  burgesses  of  later  times.  The  Jews  of  Antioch  and 
Alexandria,  and  the  numerous  similar  societies  of  lesser 
rights  and  minor  repute  took  part,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
in  the  commerce  and  intercourse  of  the  places  where  they 
dwelt.  Their  Judaism  comes  into  account  in  the  case  only 
perhaps  so  far  as  the  feelings  of  mutual  hatred  and  mutual 
contempt,  which  had  become  developed  or  rather  increased 
since  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  and  the  repeated 
national-religious  wars  between  Jews  and  non-Jews  must 
have  exercised  their  effect  also  in  these  circles.  As  the 
Syrian  merchants  resident  abroad  met  together  in  the  first 
instance  for  the  worship  of  their,  native  deities,  the  Syrian 
Jew  in  Puteoli  cannot  well  have  belonged  to  the  Syrian 
merchant-guilds  there  ;  and,  if  the  worship  of  the  Syr- 
ian gods  found  more  and  more  an  echo  abroad,  that  which 
benefited  the  other  Syrians  drew  one  barrier  the  more  be- 
tween the  Syrians  believing  in  Moses  and  the  Italians.  If 
those  Jews  who  had  found  a  home  outside  of  Palestine, 
attached  themselves  beyond  it  not  to  those  who  shared 
their  dwelling-place  but  to  those  who  shared  their  religion, 
as  they  could  not  but  do,  they  thereby  renounced  the 
esteem  and  the  toleration  which  the  Alexandrians  and  the 
Antiochenes  and  the  like  met  with  abroad,  aijd  were  taken 


156 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


for  what  they  professed  to  be — Jews.  The  Palestinian  Jews 
of  the  West,  however,  had  for  the  most  part  not  originated 
from  mercantile  emigration,  but  were  captives  of  war  or 
descendants  of  such,  and  in  every  respect  homeless  ;  the 
Pariah  position  which  the  children  of  Abraham  occupied, 
especially  in  the  Roman  capital — that  of  the  mendicant 
Jew,  whose  household  furniture  consisted  in  his  bundle  of 
hay  and  his  usurer's  basket,  and  for  whom  no  service  was 
too  poor  and  too  menial — linked  itself  with  the  slave-mar- 
ket. Under  these  circumstances  we  can  understand  why 
the  Jews  during  the  imperial  period  played  in  the  West  a 
subordinate  part  alongside  of  the  Syrians.  The  religious 
fellowship  of  the  mercantile  and  proletarian  immigrants 
told  heavily  on  the  collective  body  of  the  Jews,  along  with 
the  general  disparagement  connected  with  their  position. 
But  that  Diaspora,  as  well  as  this,  had  little  to  do  with 
Palestine. 


There  remains  still  a  frontier  territory  to  be  looked  at, 
which  is  not  often  mentioned,  and  which  yet 
Province  of      -^g^  dcscrvcs  Consideration  :  it  is  the  Roman 

Arabia  ' 

province  of  Arabia.  It  bears  its  name  wrongly  ; 
the  emperor  who  erected  it,  Trajan,  was  a  man  of  big  deeds 
but  still  bigger  words.  The  Arabian  peninsula,  which 
separates  the  region  of  the  Euphrates  from  the  valley  of 
the  Nile,  lacking  in  rain,  without  rivers,  on  all  sides  sur- 
rounded by  a  rocky  coast  poor  in  harbours,  was  little  fitted 
for  agriculture  or  for  commerce,  and  in  old  times  by  far 
the  greater  part  of  it  remained  the  undisputed  heritage  of 
the  unsettled  inhabitants  of  the  desert.  In  particular  the 
Romans,  who  understood  how  to  restrict  their  possession 
in  Asia  as  in  Egypt  better  than  any  other  of  the  changing 
powers  in  the  ascendant,  never  even  attempted  to  subdue 
the  Arabian  peninsula.  Their  few  enterprises  against  its 
south-eastern  portion,  the  most  rich  in  products,  and 
from  its  relation  to  India  the  most  important  also  for 


Chap.  X.]  Land  of  the  Nahataeans. 


157 


commerce,  will  be  set  forth  when  we  discuss  the  business- 
relations  of  Egypt.  Koman  Arabia,  even  as  a  Eoman 
client- state  and  especially  as  a  Roman  province,  embraced 
only  a  moderate  portion  of  the  north  of  the  peninsula, 
but,  in  addition,  the  land  to  the  south  and  east  of  Palestine 
between  this  and  the  great  desert  till  beyond  Bostra.  At 
the  same  time  with  this  let  us  take  into  account  the  coun- 
try belonging  to  Syria  between  Bostra  and  Damascus, 
which  is  now  usually  named  after  the  Hauran  mountains, 
according  to  its  old  designation  Trachonitis  and  Batanaea. 
These  extensive  regions  were  only  to  be  gained  for 
civilisation  under   special  conditions.  The 

Conditions  of        ,  ,  "     .-rx       *  t  \    j       t^  i 

culture  in  east-  stcppc-couutry  proper  (Hamad)  to  the  east- 
ern Syria.  -ward  from  the  region  with  which  we  are  now 
occupied  as  far  as  the  Euphrates,  was  never  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  the  Romans,  and  was  incapable  of  cultivation  ; 
only  the  roving  tribes  of  the  desert,  such  as  at  the  present 
dsij  the  Haneze,  traverse  it,  to  pasture  their  horses  and 
camels  in  winter  along  the  Euphrates,  in  summer  on 
the  mountains  south  of  Bostra,  and  often  to  change  the 
pasture-ground  several  times  in  the  year.  The  pastoral 
tribes  settled  westward  of  the  steppe,  who  pursue  in  par- 
ticular the  breeding  of  sheep  to  a  great  extent,  stand 
already  at  a  higher  degree  of  culture.  But  there  is  mani- 
fold room  for  agriculture  also  in  these  districts.  The 
red  earth  of  the  Hauran,  decomposed  lava,  yields  in  its 
primitive  state  much  wild  rye,  wild  barley,  and  wild  oats, 
and  furnishes  the  finest  wheat.  Individual  deep  valleys 
in  the  midst  of  the  stone-deserts,  such  as  the  "  seed- field," 
the  Ruhbe  in  the  Trachonitis,  are  the  most  fertile  tracts 
in  all  Syria  ;  without  ploughing,  to  say  nothing  of  manur- 
ing, wheat  yields  on  the  average  eighty  and  barley  a  hun- 
dredfold, and  twenty-six  stalks  from  one  grain  of  wheat 
are  not  uncommon.  Nevertheless  no  fixed  dwelling-place 
was  formed  here,  because  in  the  summer  months  the  great 
heat  and  the  want  of  water  and  pasture  compel  the  in- 
habitants to  migrate  to  the  mountain  pastures  of  the 
Hauran.    But  there  was  not  wanting  opportunity  even  for 


158 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


fixed  settlement.  The  garden  quarter  around  the  town  of 
Damascus,  watered  by  the  river  Barada  in  its  many  arms, 
and  the  fertile  even  now  populous  districts  which  enclose 
it  on  the  east,  north,  and  south,  were  in  ancient  as  in 
modern  times  the  pearl  of  Syria.  The  plain  round  Bostra, 
particularly  the  so-called  Nukra  to  the  west  of  it,  is  at  the 
present  day  the  granaryfor  Syria,  although  from  the  want 
of  rain  on  an  average  every  fourth  harvest  is  lost,  and  the 
locusts  often  invading  it  from  the  neighbouring  desert 
remain  a  scourge  of  the  land  which  cannot  be  extermi- 
nated. Wherever  the  water-courses  of  the  mountains  are 
led  into  the  plain,  fresh  life  flourishes  amidst  them. 
"The  fertility  of  this  region,"  says  one  who  knows  it 
well,  "  is  inexhaustible  ;  and  even  at  the  present  day, 
where  the  Nomads  have  left  neither  tree  nor  shrub,  the 
land,  so  far  as  the  eye  reaches,  is  like  a  garden."  Even 
on  the  lava-surfaces  of  the  mountainous  districts  the  lava- 
streams  have  left  not  a  few  places  (termed  Ka'  in  the 
Hauran),  free  for  cultiva.tion. 

This  natural  condition  has,  as  a  rule,  handed  over  the 
country  to  shepherds  and  robbers.  The  necessarily  no- 
madic character  of  a  great  part  of  the  population  leads  to 
endless  feuds,  particularly  about  places  of  pasture,  and  to 
constant  seizures  of  those  regions  which  are  suited  for 
fixed  settlement  ;  here,  still  more  than  elsewhere,  there  is 
need  for  the  formation  of  such  political  powers  as  are  in  a 
position  to  procure  quiet  and  peace  on  a  wider  scale,  and 
for  these  there  is  no  right  basis  in  the  population.  There 
is  hardly  a  region  in  the  wide  world  in  which,  so  much  as 
in  this  case,  civilisation  has  not  grown  up  spontaneously, 
but  could  only  be  called  into  existence  by  the  ascendency 
of  conquest  from  without.  When  military  stations  hem  in 
the  roving  tribes  of  the  desert  and  force  those  within  the 
limit  of  cultivation  to  a  peaceful  pastoral  life,  when  colo- 
nists are  conducted  to  the  regions  capable  of  culture,  and 
the  waters  of  the  mountains  are  led  by  human  hands  into 
the  plains,  then,  but  only  then,  a  cheerful  and  plentiful  life 
thrives  in  this  region, 


Chaf.  X.]         Land  of  the  Nahataeans.  159 


The  pre-Eoman  period  had  not  brought  such  blessings 
to  these  lands.  The  inhabitants  of  the  whole 
kilastenf Syria,  territory  as  far  as  Damascus  belong  to  the 
Arabian  branch  of  the  great  Semitic  stock;  the 
names  of  persons  at  least  are  throughout  Arabic.  In  it, 
as  in  northern  Syria,  Oriental  and  Occidental  civilisation 
met  ;  yet  up  to  the  time  of  the  empire  the  two  had  made 
but  little  progress.  The  language  and  the  writing,  which 
the  Nabataeans  used,  were  those  of  Syria  and  of  the  Eu- 
phrates-lands, and  could  only  have  come  from  thence  to  the 
natives.  On  the  other  hand  the  Greek  settlement  in  Syria 
extended  itself,  in  part  at  least,  also  to  these  regions.  The 
great  commercial  town  of  Damascus  had  become  Greek 
with  the  rest  of  Syria.  The  Seleucids  had  carried  the 
founding  of  Greek  towns  even  into  the  region  beyond  the 
Jordan,  especially  into  the  northern  Decapolis ;  further  to 
the  south  at  least  the  old  Kabbath  Ammon  had  been  con- 
verted by  the  Lagids  into  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  But 
further  away  and  in  the  eastern  districts  bordering  on  the 
desert  the  Nabataean  kings  were  not  much  more  than 
nominally  obedient  to  the  Syrian  or  Egyptian  Alexandrids, 
and  coins  or  inscriptions  and  buildings,  which  might  be 
attributed  to  pre-Koman  Hellenism,  have  nowhere  come 
to  light. 

When  Syria  became  Roman,  Pompeius  exerted  himself 
to  strengthen  the   Hellenic   urban  system, 

ttFoS^int  which  he  found  in  existence ;  as  indeed  the 
towns  of  the  Decapolis  subsequently  reckoned 
their  years  from  the  year  690-91,  in  which 
Palestine  had  been  added  to  the  empire.^ 

But  in  this  region  the  government  as  well  as  the  civilisa- 

'  That  the  Decapolis  and  the  reorganisation  of  Pompeius  reached 
at  last  as  f.ir  as  Kanata  (Kerak),  north-west  of  Bostra,  is  established 
hj  the  testimonies  of  authors  and  by  the  coins  dated  from  the  Pom- 
peian  era  (Waddington  on  2413,  d).  To  the  same  town  probably  be- 
long the  coins  with  the  name  ral3(e)iu{ia)  Kduada,  with  the  name  and 
dates  of  the  same  era  (Reichardt,  Num.  Zeitschrift,  1880,  p.  53) ;  this 
place  would  accordingly  belong  to  the  numerous  ones  restored  by 
Gabinius  (Josephus,  Arch.  xiv.  5,  3).  Waddington  no  doubt  (on  no. 


160 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


tion  continued  to  be  left  to  the  two  vassal-states,  the  Jew- 
ish and  the  Arabian. 

Of  the  king  of  the  Jews,  Herod  and  his  house,  we  shall 
have  to  speak  elsewhere  ;  here  we  have  to  men- 
Herod  beyond  tion  his  activity  in  the  extending  of  civilisa- 
the  Jordan.  ^^^^  toward  the  east.  His  field  of  dominion 
stretched  over  both  banks  of  the  Jordan  in  all  its  extent, 
northwards  as  far  at  least  as  Chelbon  north-west  from 
Damascus,  southward  as  far  as  the  Dead  Sea,  while  the 
region  farther  to  the  east  between  his  kingdom  and  the 
desert  w^as  assigned  to  the  king  of  the  Arabians.  He  and 
his  descendants,  who  still  bore  sway  here  after  the  annex- 
ation of  the  lordship  of  Jerusalem  down  to  Trajan,  and 
subsequently  resided  in  Caesarea  Paneas  in  the  southern 
Lebanon,  had  endeavoured  energetically  to  tame  the  na- 
tives. The  oldest  evidences  of  a  certain  culture  in  these 
regions  are  doubtless  the  cave-towns,  of  which  there  is 
mention  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  large  subterranean  col- 
lective hiding-places  made  habitable  by  air-shafts,  with 
streets  and  wells,  fitted  to  shelter  men  and  flocks,  difficult 
to  be  found  and,  even  when  found,  difficult  to  be  reduced. 
Their  mere  existence  shows  the  oppression  of  the  peaceful 
inhabitants  by  the  unsettled  sons  of  the  steppe.  "  These 
districts,"  says  Josephus,  when  he  describes  the  state  of 
things  in  the  Hauran  under  Augustus,  "  were  inhabited 
by  wild  tribes,  without  towns  and  without  fixed  fields,  who 
harboured  with  their  flocks  under  the  earth  in  caves  with 
narrow  entrance  and  wide  intricate  paths,  but  copiously 
supplied  with  water  and  provisions  were  difficult  to  be 
subdued."  Several  of  these  cave-towns  contained  as  many 
as  400  head.  A  remarkable  edict  of  the  first  or  second 
Agrippa,  fragments  of  which  have  been  found  at  Canatha 

2329)  assigns  these  coins,  so  far  as  he  knew  them  to  the  second  place 
of  this  name,  the  modern  Kanawat  the  proper  capital  of  the  Hau- 
ran, to  the  northward  of  Bostra ;  hut  it  is  far  from  probable  that  the 
organisation  of  Pompeius  and  Gabinius  extended  so  far  eastward 
Presumably  this  second  city  was  younger  and  named  after  the  first, 
the  most  easterly  town  of  the  Decapolis. 


Chap.  X.]         Land  of  the  N'abataeans.  161 


(Kanawat),  summons  the  inhabitants  to  leave  off  their 
"  animal-conditions  "  and  to  exchange  their  cavern-life  for 
civilised  existence.  The  non-settled  Arabs  live  chiefly  by 
the  plundering  partly  of  the  neighbouring  peasants,  part- 
ly of  caravans  on  the  march  ;  the  uncertainty  was  increased 
by  the  fact  that  the  petty  prince  Zenodorus  of  Abila  to  the 
north  of  Damascus,  in  the  Anti-Libanus,  to  whom  Augus- 
tus had  committed  the  superintendence  over  the  Trachon, 
preferred  to  make  common  cause  with  the  robbers  and 
secretly  shared  in  their  gains.  Just  in  consequence  of  this 
the  emperor  assigned  this  region  to  Herod,  and  his  re- 
morseless energy  succeeded,  in  some  measure,  in  repress- 
ing this  brigandage.  The  king  appears  to  have  instituted 
on  the  east  frontier  a  line  of  military  'posts,  fortified  and 
put  under  royal  commanders  (eTrapxoi).  He  would  have 
achieved  still  more  if  the  Nabataean  territory  had  not  af- 
forded the  robbers  an  asylum  ;  this  was  one  of  the  causes 
of  variance  between  him  and  his  Arabian  colleague.  ^  His 
Hellenising  tendency  comes  into  prominence  in  this  domain 
as  strongly  and  less  unpleasantly  than  in  his  government 
at  home.  As  all  the  coins  of  Herod  and  the  Herodians 
are  Greek,  so  in  the  land  beyond  the  Jordan,  while  the 
oldest  monument  with  an  inscription  that  we  know — the 
Temple  of  Baalsamin  at  Canatha — bears  an  Aramaean  dedi- 
cation, the  honorary  bases  erected  there,  including  one 
for  Herod  the  Great, ^  are  bilingual  or  merely  Greek;  under 
his  successors  Greek  rules  alone. 

By  the  side  of  the  Jewish  kings  stood  the  formerly- 
mentioned  (iv.  172)  "king  of  Nabat,"  as  he  called  him- 

1  The  "  refugees  from  the  tetrarchy  of  Philippus,"  who  serve  in 
the  army  of  Herodes  Antipas,  tetrarch  of  Galilee,  and  pass  over  to 
the  enemy  in  the  battle  with  Aretas  the  Arabian  (Josephus,  Arch. 
xviii.  5,  1),  are  beyond  doubt  Arabians  driven  out  from  the  Tra- 
chonitis. 

2  Waddington,  2366  =  Vogue,  Insc7\  du  Haouran,  n.  3.  Bilingual 
is  also  the  oldest  epitaph  of  this  region  from  Suweda,  Waddington, 
2320  =  Vogue,  n.  1,  the  only  one  in  the  Hauran,  which  expresses  the 
mute  iota.  The  inscriptions  are  so  put  on  both  monuments  that  we 
cannot  determine  which  language  takes  precedence. 

Vol.  II.— H 


162 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


self.  The  residence  of  this  Arabian  prince  was  the  city, 
known  to  us  only  by  its  Greek  name  Petra,  a 
of^Nabat.^^™  rock-fastncss  situated  midway  between  the 
Dead  Sea  and  the  north-east  extremity  of  the 
Arabian  Gulf,  from  of  old  an  emporium  for  the  traffic  of 
India  and  Arabia  with  the  region  of  the  Mediterranean. 
These  rulers  possessed  the  northern  half  of  the  Arabian 
peninsula ;  their  power  extended  on  the  Arabian  Gulf  as 
far  as  Leuce  Come  opposite  to  the  Egyptian  town  of 
Berenice,  in  the  interior  at  least  as  far  as  the  region  of 
the  old  Thaema.^  To  the  north  of  the  peninsula  their 
territory  reached  as  far  as  Damascus,  which  was  under 
their  protection,^  and  even  beyond  Damascus,^  and  en- 

^  At  Medain  Salili  or  Hijr,  southward  from  Teima,  the  ancient 
Thaema,  there  has  recently  been  found  by  the  travellers  Doughty 
and  Huber,  a  series  of  Nabataean  inscriptions,  which,  in  great  part 
dated,  reach  from  the  time  of  Augustus  down  to  the  death  of 
Vespasian.  Latin  inscriptions  are  wanting,  and  the  few  Greek  are 
of  the  latest  period ;  to  all  appearance,  on  the  conversion  of  the 
Nabataean  kingdom  into  a  Roman  province,  the  portion  of  the  in- 
terior of  Arabia  that  belonged  to  the  former  was  given  up  by  the 
Romans. 

^  The  city  of  Damascus  voluntarily  submitted  under  the  last 
Seleucids  about  the  time  of  the  dictatorship  of  Sulla  to  the  king  of 
the  Nabataeans  at  the  time,  presumably  the  Aretas,  with  whom  Scau- 
rus  fought  (Josephus,  Arch.  xiii.  15).  The  coins  with  the  legend 
^aaixiws  'Aperou  (pi\e\\T]vo'i  (Eckhel,  iii.  330  ;  Luynes,  liev.  de 
JVumism.  1858,  p.  311),  were  perhaps  struck  in  Damascus,  when 
this  was  dependent  on  the  Nabataeans ;  the  reference  of  the  number 


'  The  Nabataean  inscription  found  recently  near  Dmer,  to  the 
north-east  of  Damascus  on  the  road  to  Palmyra  (Sachau,  Zeitschr. 
der  deutschen  moryenl.  Oesellschaft,  xxxviii.  p.  535),  dates  from  the 
month  Ijjar  of  the  year  410  according  to  the  Roman  {i.e.  Seleucid) 
reckoning,  and  the  24th  year  of  king  Dabel,  the  last  Nabataean  one, 
and  so  from  May  99  a.d.,  has  shown  that  this  district  up  to  the 
annexation  of  this  kingdom  remained  under  the  rule  of  the  Naba- 
taeans. We  may  add  that  the  fields  of  rule  here  seem  to  have 
been,  geographically,  thrown  across  each  other  ;  thus  the  tetrarch 
of  Galilee  and  the  Nabataean  king  fought  about  the  territory  of 
Gamala  on  the  lake  of  Gennesaret  (Josephus,  Arch,  xviii.  51). 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Wabataeans. 


163 


closed  as  with  a  girdle  the  whole  of  Palestinian  Syria. 
The  Romans,  after  taking  possession  of  Judaea,  came  into 
hostile  contact  with  them,  and  Marcus  Scaurus  led  an 
expedition  against  them.  At  that  time  their  subjugation 
was  not  accomplished ;  but  it  must  have  ensued  soon 

of  the  year  on  one  of  them  is  not  indeed  certain,  but  points,  it  may 
be  presumed,  to  the  last  period  of  the  Roman  republic.  Probably 
this  dependence  of  the  city  on  the  Nabataean  kings  subsisted  so 
long  as  there  were  such  kings.  From  the  fact  that  the  city  struck 
coins  with  the  heads  of  the  Roman  emperors,  there  follows  doubt- 
less its  dependence  on  Rome  and  therewith  its  self-administration, 
but  not  its  non-dependence  on  the  Roman  vassal-prince ;  such  pro- 
tectorates assumed  shapes  so  various  that  these  arrangements  might 
well  be  compatible  with  each  other.  The  continuance  of  the  Naba- 
taean rule  is  attested  partly  by  the  circumstance  that  the  ethnarch 
of  king  Aretas  in  Damascus  wished  to  have  the  Apostle  Paul  arrested, 
as  the  latter  writes  in  the  2d  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  xi.  32,  partly 
by  the  recently-established  fact  (see  following  note)  that  the  rule  of 
the  Nabataeans  to  the  north-east  of  Damascus  was  still  continuing 
under  Trajan. — Those  who  start,  on  -the  other  hand,  from  the  view 
that,  if  Aretas  ruled  in  Damascus,  the  city  could  not  be  Roman, 
have  attempted  in  various  ways  to  fix  the  chronology  of  that  event 
in  the  life  of  Paul.  They  have  thought  of  the  complication  between 
Aretas  and  the  Roman  government  in  the  last  years  of  Tiberius ; 
but  from  the  course  which  this  took  it  is  not  probable  that  it 
brought  about  a  permanent  change  in  the  state  of  possession  of 
Aretas.  Melchior  de  Vogue  {Melanges  de'arch.  orientale,  app.  p.  33) 
has  pointed  out  that  between  Tiberius  and  Nero — more  precisely, 
between  the  years  33  and  G2  (Saulcy,  iVwm.  de  la  terre  sainte,  p.  36) — 
there  are  no  imperial  coins  of  Damascus,  and  has  placed  the  rule  of 
the  Nabataeans  there  in  this  interval,  on  the  assumption  that  the 
emperor  Gains  showed  his  favour  to  the  Arabian  as  to  so  many 
others  of  the  vassal-princes,  and  invested  him  with  Damascus.  But 
such  interruptions  of  coinage  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  and  re- 
quire no  such  profound  explanation.  The  attempt  to  find  a  chrono- 
logical basis  for  the  history  of  Paul's  life  in  the  sway  of  the  Naba- 
taean king  at  Damascus,  and  generally  to  define  the  time  of  Paul's 
abode  in  this  city,  must  probably  be  abandoned.  If  we  may  so  far 
trust  the  representation — in  any  case  considerably  shifted — of  the 
event  in  Acts  ix.,  Paul  went  to  Damascus  before  his  conversion,  in 
order  to  continue  there  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  in  which 
Stephen  had  perished,  and  then,  when  on  his  conversion  he  took 
part  on  the  contrary  in  Damascus  for  the  Christians,  the  Jews  there 


164 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


afterwards.'  Under  Augustus  their  king  Obodas  was  just 
as  subject  to  the  empire  ^  as  Herod  the  king  of  the  Jews, 
and  rendered,  Hke  the  latter,  military  service  in  the  Roman 
expedition  against  southern  Arabia.  Since  that  time  the 
protection  of  the  imperial  frontier  in  the  south  as  in  the 
east  of  Syria,  as  far  up  as  to  Damascus,  must  have  lain 
mainly  in  the  hands  of  this  Arabian  king.  With  his 
Jewish  neighbour  he  was  at  constant  feud.  Augustus, 
indignant  at  the  Arabian  instead  of  seeking  justice  at  the 
hand  of  his  suzerain  against  Herod,  had  encountered  the 
latter  with  arms,  and  that  Obodas's  son,  Harethath,  or  in 
Greek  Aretas,  after  the  death  of  his  father,  instead  of 
waiting  for  investiture,  had  at  once  entered  upon  the 
dominion,  was  on  the  point  of  deposing  the  latter  and  of 
joining  his  territory  to  the  Jewish ;  but  the  misrule  of 

resolved  to  put  him  to  death,  in  which  case  it  must  therefore  be 
presupposed  that  the  officials  of  Aretas,  like  Pilate,  allowed  free 
course  to  the  persecution  of  heretics  by  the  Jews.  Moreover,  it 
follows  from  the  trustworthy  statements  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  that  the  conversion  took  place  at  Damascus  (for  the 
vTre(rTpe\pa  shows  this),  and  Paul  went  from  thence  to  Arabia; 
further,  that  he  came  three  years  after  his  conversion  for  the  first 
time,  and  seventeen  years  after  it  for  the  second  time,  to  Jerusalem, 
in  accordance  with  which  the  apocryphal  accounts  of  the  Book  of 
Acts  as  to  his  Jerusalem-journeys  are  to  be  corrected  (Zeller,  Apostel- 
gesch.  p.  216).  But  we  cannot  determine  exactly  either  the  time  of 
the  death  of  Stephen,  much  less  the  time  intervening  between  this 
and  the  flig-ht  of  the  converted  Paul  from  Damascus,  or  the  interval 
between  his  second  journey  to  Jerusalem  and  the  composition  of  the 
Galatian  letter,  or  the  year  of  that  composition  itself. 

1  Perhaps  through  Gabinius  (Appian,  Syr.  51). 

2  Strabo,  xvi.  4,  21,  p.  779.  The  coins  of  these  kings,  however, 
do  not  show  the  emperor's  head.  But  that  in  the  Nabataean  king- 
dom dates  might  run  by  the  Roman  imperial  years  is  shown  by  the 
Nabataean  inscription  of  Hebran  (Vogue  Syi^ie  Gentrale,  insc.  n.  1), 
dated  from  the  seventh  year  of  Claudius,  and  so  from  the  year 
47.  Hebran,  a  little  to  the  north  of  Bostra,  appears  to  have  been 
reckoned  also  at  a  later  time  to  Arabia  (Lebas-Waddington,  2287); 
and  Nabataean  inscriptions  of  a  public  tenor  are  not  met  with  out- 
side of  the  Nabataean  state  ;  the  few  of  the  kind  from  Trachonitis 
are  of  a  private  nature. 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Ndbataeans. 


165 


Herod  in  his  later  years  withheld  him  from  this  step,  and 
^  so  Aretas  was  confirmed  (about   747  u.c). 

Some  decades  later  he  began  again  warfare 
at  his  own  hand  against  his  son-in-law,  the  prince  of 
Galilee,  Herod  Antipas,  on  account  of  the  divorce  of  his 
daughter  in  favour  of  the  beautiful  Herodias.  He  re- 
tained the  upper  hand,  but  the  indignant  suzerain  Tibe- 
rius ordered  the  governor  of  Syria  to  proceed  against  him. 
The  troops  were  already  on  the  march,  when  Tiberius  died 
(37);  and  his  successor,  Gains,  who  did  not  wish  well  to 
Antipas,  pardoned  the  Arabian.  King  Maliku  or  Malchus, 
the  successor  of  Aretas,  fought  under  Nero  and  Vespasian 
in  the  Jewish  war  as  a  Koman  vassal,  and  transmitted  his 
dominion  to  his  son  Dabel,  the  contemporary  of  Trajan, 
and  the  last  of  these  rulers.  More  especially  after  the 
annexation  of  the  state  of  Jerusalem  and  the  reducing  of 
the  respectable  dominion  of  Herod  to  the  far  from  martial 
kingdom  of  Caesarea  Paneas,  the  Arabian  was  the  most 
considerable  of  the  Syrian  client- states,  as  indeed  it  fur- 
nished the  strongest  among  the  royal  contingents  to  the 
Eoman  army  besieging  Jerusalem.  This  state  even  under 
Roman  supremacy  refrained  from  the  use  of  the  Greek 
language;  the  coins  struck  under  the  rule  of  its  kings 
bear,  apart  from  Damascus,  an  Aramaic  legend.  But  there 
appear  the  germs  of  an  organised  condition  and  of  civilised 
government.  The  coinage  itself  probably  only  began  after 
the  state  had  come  under  Eoman  clientship.  The  Arabian- 
Indian  traffic  with  the  region  of  the  Mediterranean  moved 
in  great  part  along  the  caravan-route  watched  over  by  the 
Romans,  running  from  Leuce  Come  by  way  of  Petra  to 
Gaza.*   The  princes  of  the  Nabataean  kingdom  made  use, 

^  "  Leuke  Kome  in  the  land  of  tlie  Nabataeans,"  says  Strabo  under 
Tiberius,  xvi.  4,  23,  p.  780,  "is  a  great  place  of  trade,  wbither  and 
whence  the  caravan- traders  {Kafi-nXefiiropoi)  go  safely  and  easily  from 
and  to  Petra  with  so  large  numbers  of  men  and  camels  that  tliey 
differ  in  nothing  from  encampments."  The  Egyptian  merchant 
also,  writing  under  Vespasian,  in  his  description  of  the  coasts  of  the 
Red  Sea  (c.  19),  mentions  "the  port  and  the  fortress  {(ppoipiov)  of 
Leuce  Come,  whence  the  route  leads  towards  Petra  to  the  king  of 


166 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


just  like  the  community  of  Palmyra,  of  Greek  official 
designations  for  their  magistrates,  e.g.  of  the  titles  of 
Eparch  and  of  Strategos.  If  under  Tiberius  the  good  order 
of  Syria  brought  about  by  the  Komans  and  the  security 
of  the  harvests  occasioned  by  their  military  occupation  are 
made  prominent  as  matters  of  boasting,  this  is  primarily  to 
be  referred  to  the  arrangements  made  in  the  client-states  of 
Jerusalem  or  subsequently  of  Caesarea  Paneas  and  of  Petra. 

Under  Trajan  the  direct  rule  of  Eome  took  the  place  of 
^  ^.^  ^.  ^  these  two  client-states.  In  the  beginning  of 
the  province  of  his  rcigu  king  Agrippa  11.  died,  and  his  ter- 
ritory was  united  with  the  province  of  Syria. 
Not  long  after,  in  the  year  106,  the  governor  Aulus  Cor- 
nelius Palm  a  broke  up  the  previous  dominion  of  the  kings 
of  Nabat,  and  made  the  greater  part  of  it  into  the  Eoman 
.province  of  Arabia,  while  Damascus  went  to  Syria,  and 
what  the  Nabataean  king  had  possessed  in  the  interior  of 
Arabia  was  abandoned  by  the  Romans.  The  erection  of 
Arabia  is  designated  as  subjugation,  and  the  coins  also 
which  celebrate  the  taking  possession  of  it  attest  that 
the  Nabataeans  offered  resistance,  as  indeed  generally  the 
nature  of  their  territory  as  well  as  their  previous  attitude 
lead  us  to  assume  a  relative  independence  on  the  part  of 
these  princes.  But  the  historical  significance  of  these 
events  may  not  be  sought  in  warlike  success  ;  the  two  an- 
nexations, which  doubtless  went  together,  were  no  more 
than  acts  of  administration  carried  out  perhaps  by  mili- 
tary power,  and  the  tendency  to  acquire  these  domains  for 

the  Nabataeans  Malichas.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the  emporium  for 
the  goods  conveyed  thither  from  Arabia  in  not  very  large  vessels. 
Therefore  there  is  sent  thither  (airofrTeAAerat)  a  receiver  of  the  im- 
port-dues of  a  fourth  of  the  value,  and  for  the  sake  of  security  a 
centurion  {kKarovTapxn^)  with  men."  As  one  belonging  to  the  Roman 
empire  here  mentions  officials  and  soldiers,  these  can  only  be  Roman ; 
the  centurion  does  not  suit  the  army  of  the  Nabataean  king,  and  the 
form  of  tax  is  quite  the  Roman.  The  bringing  of  a  client-state  within 
the  sphere  of  imperial  taxation  occurs  elsewhere,  e.g.  in  the  regions 
of  the  Alps.  The  road  from  Petra  to  Gaza  is  mentioned  by  Plin. 
H.  N.  vi.  28,  144. 


CHAr.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Ndbataeans. 


167 


civilisation  and  specially  for  Hellenism  was  only  height- 
ened by  the  fact  that  the  Koman  government  took  upon 
itself  the  work.  The  Hellenism  of  the  East,  as  summed 
up  in  Alexander,  was  a  church  militant,  a  thoroughly  con- 
quering power  pushing  its  way  in  a  political,  religious, 
economic,  and  literary  point  of  view.  Here,  on  the  edge 
of  the  desert,  under  the  pressure  of  anti-Hellenic  Judaism 
and  in  the  hands  of  the  spiritless  and  vacillating  govern- 
ment of  the  Seleucids,  it  had  hitherto  achieved  little.  But 
now,  pervading  the  Eoman  system,  it  develops  a  motive 
power,  which  stands  related  to  the  earlier,  as  the  power 
of  the  Jewish  and  the  Arabian  vassal-princes  to  that  of  the 
Eoman  empire.  In  this  country,  where  everything  de- 
pended and  depends  on  protecting  the  state  of  peace  by 
the  setting  up  of  a  superior  and  standing  military  force, 
the  institution  of  a  legionary  camp  in  Bostra  under  a  com- 
mander of  senatorial  rank  was  an  epoch-making  event. 
From  this  centre  the  requisite  posts  were  established  at 
suitable  places  and  provided  with  garrisons.  For  example, 
the  stronghold  of  Namara  (Nemara)  deserves  mention,  a 
long  day's  march  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  properly 
habitable  mountain-land,  in  the  midst  of  the  stony  desert, 
but  commanding  the  only  spring  to  be  found  within  it 
and  the  forts  attached  to  it  in  the  already  mentioned  oasis 
of  Euhbe  and  further  on  at  Jebel  Ses  ;  these  garrisons  to- 
gether control  the  whole  foreland  of  the  Hauran.  Another 
series  of  forts,  placed  under  the  Syrian  command  and 
primarily  under  that  of  the  legion  posted  at  Danava  (p. 
102),  and  laid  out  at  uniform  distances  of  three  leagues 
apart,  secured  the  route  from  Damascus  to  Palmyra  ;  the 
best  known  of  them,  the  second  in  the  series,  was  that  of 
Dmer  (p.  162,  n.  3),  a  rectangle  of  300  and  350  paces  re- 
spectively, provided  on  every  side  with  six  towers  and  a 
portal  fifteen  paces  in  breadth,  and  surrounded  by  a  ring- 
wall  of  sixteen  feet  thick,  once  faced  outwardly  with  beau- 
tiful blocks  of  hewn  stone. 

Never  had  such  an  aegis  been  extended  over  this  land. 
It  was  not,  properly  speaking,  denationalised.    The  Arabic 


168 


Syria  and  the       ,        [Book  Vlll. 


names  remained  down  to  the  latest  time,  although  not 
unfrequently,  just  as  in  Syria  (p.  133),  a  Ko- 
of^^asrsyri?"^  mano-Helleuic  name  is  appended  to  the  local 
rui?^'^°°^^"  one;  thus  a  sheikh  names  himself  "Adrianos 
or  Soaidos,  son  of  Malechos." '  The  native 
worship  also  remains  unaffected ;  the  chief  deity  of  the 
Nabataeans,  Dusaris,  is  doubtless  compared  with  Diony- 
sus, but  regularly  continues  to  be  worshipped  under  his 
local  name,  and  down  to  a  late  period  the  Bostrenes  cele- 
brate the  Dusaria  in  honour  of  him.^  In  like  manner  in 
the  province  of  Arabia  temples  continue  to  be  consecrated, 
and  offerings  presented  to  Aumu  or  Helios,  to  Vasaeathu, 
to  Theandritos,  to  Ethaos.  The  tribes  and  the  tribal  or- 
ganisation no  less  continue  :  the  inscriptions  mention  lists 
of  "Phylae"  by  the  native  name,  and  frequently  Phy- 
larchs  or  Ethnarchs.  But  alongside  of  traditional  cus- 
toms civilisation  and  Hellenising  make  progress  If  from 
the  time  before  Trajan  no  Greek  monument  can  be  shown 
in  the  sphere  of  the  Nabataean  state,  on  the  other  hand  no 
monument  subsequent  to  Trajan's  time  in  the  Arabic  lan- 
guage has  been  found  there  ;^  to  all  appearance  the  im- 

*  Waddington,  2196  ;  'ASptaj/oO  toC  koX  '^oalZov  Ma\exov  idudpxov 
(rrpaTTjyov  voixdScov  rhi/  jj-vrjix^iov. 

2  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  li.  p.  483,  Dind.,  sets  forth  that  the  25th 
December,  the  birthday  of  Christ,  had  already  been  festally  ob- 
served after  an  analogous  manner  at  Rome  in  the  festival  of  the 
Saturnalia,  at  Alexandria  in  the  festival  (mentioned  also  in  the  de- 
cree of  Canopus)  of  the  Kikellia,  and  in  other  heathen  worships. 
"This  takes  place  in  Alexandria  at  th,e  so-called  Virgin's  shrine 
{K6piov)  .  .  .  and  if  we  ask  people  what  this  mystery  means, 
they  answer  and  say  that  to-day  at  this  hour  the  Virgin  has  given 
birth  to  the  Eternal  {rhv  alcova).  This  takes  place  in  like  manner 
at  Petra,  the  capital  of  Arabia,  in  the  temple  there,  and  in  the  Ara- 
bic language  they  sing  the  praise  of  the  Virgin,  whom  they  call  in 
Arabic  Chaamu,  that  is  the  maiden,  and  Him  born  of  her  Dusares, 
that  is  the  Only-begotten  of  the  Lord."  The  name  Chaamu  is  per- 
haps akin  to  the  Aumu  or  Aumos  of  the  Greek  inscriptions  of  this 
region,  who  is  compared  with  Zei/s  avlKrjros  "HKios  (Waddington, 
2392-2395,  2441,  2445,  2456). 

^  This  is  said  apart  from  the  remarkable  Arabo-Greek  inscription 
(see  below)  found  in  Harran,  not  far  from  Zorava,  of  the  year  568 


Chap.  X.]         Land  of  the  Nahataeans. 


169 


perial  government  suppressed  at  once  upon  the  annexation 
the  written  use  of  Arabic,  although  it  certainly  remained 
the  language  proper  of  the  country,  as  is  attested  not  only 
by  the  proper  names  but  by  the  "  interpreter  of  the  tax- 
receivers." 

As  to  the  advance  of  agriculture  we  have  no  witnesses 
to  speak  ;  but  if,  on  the  whole  eastern  and 
comm?rcr  ""^^  southcm  slope  of  the  Hauran,  from  the  sum- 
mits of  the  mountains  down  to  the  desert,  the 
stones,  with  which  this  volcanic  plain  was  once  strewed, 
are  thrown  into  heaps  or  arranged  in  long  rows,  and  thus 
the  most  glorious  fields  are  obtained,  we  may  recognise 
therein  the  hand  of  the  only  government  which  has  gov- 
erned this  land  as  it  might  and  should  be  governed.  In 
the  Ledja,  a  lava-plateau  thirteen  leagues  long  and  eight  to 
nine  broad,  which  is  now  almost  uninhabited,  there  grew 
once  vines  and  figs  between  the  streams  of  lava  ;  the  Ko- 
man  road  connecting  Bostra  with  Damascus  ran  across  it  ; 
in  the  Ledja  and  around  it  are  counted  the  ruins  of  twelve 
larger  and  thirty-nine  smaller  townships.  It  can  be  shown 
that,  at  the  bidding  of  the  same  governor  who  erected  the 
province  of  Arabia,  the  mighty  aqueduct  was  constructed 
which  led  the  water  from  the  mountains  of  the  Hauran  to 
Canatha  (Kerak)  in  the  plain,  and  not  far  from  it  a  simi- 
lar one  in  Arrha  (Raha) — buildings  of  Trajan,  which  may 
be  named  by  the  side  of  the  port  of  Ostia  and  the  Forum 
of  Eome.  The  flourishing  of  commercial  intercourse  is 
attested  by  the  very  choice  of  the  capital  of  the  new  prov- 
ince. Bostra  existed  under  the  Nabataean  government, 
and  an  inscription  of  king  Malichu  has  been  found  there  ; 
but  its  military  and  commercial  importance  begins  with 
the  introduction  of  direct  Roman  government.  "  Bostra," 
says  Wetzstein,  "  has  the  most  favourable  situation  of  all 
the  towns  in  eastern  Syria ;  even  Damascus,  which  owes 
its  size  to  the  abundance  of  its  water  and  to  its  situation 
protected  by  the  eastern  Trachon,  will  excel  Bostra  only 

A.D.,  set  up  by  the  pliylarch  Asaraelos,  son  of  Talemos  (Wadding- 
ton,  2464).    This  Christian  is  a  precursor  of  Mohammed. 


170 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


uuder  a  weak  government,  while  the  latter  under  a  strong 
and  wise  government  must  elevate  itself  in  a  few  decades 
to  a  fabulous  prosperity.  It  is  the  great  market  for  the 
Syrian  desert  :  the  high  mountains  of  Arabia  and  Peraea, 
and  its  long  rows  of  booths  of  stone  still  in  their  desola- 
tion, furnish  evidence  of  the  reality  of  an  earlier,  and  the 
possibility  of  a  future,  greatness."  The  remains  of  the 
Roman  road,  leading  thence  by  way  of  Salchat  and  Ezrak 
to  the  Persian  Gulf,  show  that  Bostra  was,  along  with 
Petra  and  Palmyra,  a  medium  of  traffic  from  the  East  to 
the  Mediterranean.  This  town  was  probably  constituted 
on  a  Hellenic  basis  already  by  Trajan  ;  at  least  it  is  called 
thenceforth  the  "new  Trajanic  Bostra,"  and  the  Greek 
coins  begin  with  Pius,  while  later  the  legend  becomes 
Latin  in  consequence  of  the  bestowal  of  colonial  rights  by 
Alexander. 

Petra  too  had  a  Greek  municipal  constitution  already 
under  Hadrian,  and  several  other  places  subsequently  re- 
ceived municipal  rights  ;  but  in  this  territory  of  the  Ara- 
bians down  to  the  latest  period  the  tribe  and  the  tribal 
village  preponderated. 

A  peculiar  civilisation  was  developed  from  the  mixture 
of  national  and  Greek  elements  in  these  re- 
Seastern syrfa.  gious  during  the  fivc  hundred  years  between 
Trajan  and  Mohammed.  A  fuller  picture  of 
it  has  been  preserved  to  us  than  of  other  forms  of  the  an- 
cient world,  inasmuch  as  the  structures  of  Petra,  in  great 
part  worked  out  of  the  rock,  and  the  buildings  in  the 
Hauran,  executed  entirely  of  stone  owing  to  the  want  of 
wood,  comparatively  little  injured  by  the  sway  of  the  Be- 
douins which  was  here  again  installed  with  Islam  in  its 
old  misrule,  are  still  to  a  considerable  degree  extant  to  the 
present  day,  and  throw  a  clear  light  on  the  artistic  skill 
and  the  manner  of  life  of  those  centuries.  The  above- 
mentioned  temple  of  Baalsamin  at  Canatha,  certainly  built 
under  Herod,  shows  in  its  original  portions  a  complete  di- 
versity from  Greek  architecture  and  in  the  structural  plan 
remarkable  analogies  with  the  temple-building  of  the 


Chap.  X.]  Laiid'of  the  Nabataeans. 


171 


same  king  in  Jerusalem,  while  the  pictorial  representa- 
tions shunned  in  the  latter  are  by  no  means  wanting  here. 
A  similar  state  of  things  has  been  observed  in  the  monu- 
ments found  at  Petra.  Afterwards  further  steps  were 
taken.  If  under  the  Jewish  and  the  Nabataean  rulers  cul- 
ture freed  itself  but  slowly  from  the  influences  of  the 
East,  a  new  time  seems  to  have  begun  here  with  the  trans- 
fer of  the  legion  to  Bostra.  "  Building,"  says  an  excellent 
French  observer,  Melchior  de  Vogue,  "  obtained  thereby 
an  impetus  which  was  not  again  arrested.  Everywhere 
rose  houses,  palaces,  baths,  temples,  theatres,  aqueducts, 
triumphal  arches  ;  towns  sprang  from  the  ground  within 
a  few  years  with  the  regular  construction  and  the  sym- 
metrically disposed  colonnades  which  mark  towns  without 
a  past,  and  which  are  as  it  were  the  inevitable  uniform  for 
this  part  of  Syria  during  the  imperial  period."  The  east- 
ern and  southern  slope  of  the  Hauran  shows  nearly  three 
hundred  such  desolated  towns  and  villages,  while  there 
only  five  new  townships  now  exist ;  several  of  the  former, 
e.g.  Btisan,  number  as  many  as  800  houses  of  one  to  two 
stories,  built  throughout  of  basalt,  with  well-jointed  walls 
of  square  blocks  without  cement,  with  doors  mostly  orna- 
mented and  often  provided  with  inscriptions,  the  flat  roof 
formed  of  stone  rafters,  which  are  supported  by  stone 
arches  and  made  rain-proof  above  by  a  layer  of  cement. 
The  town-wall  is  usually  formed  only  by  the  backs  of  the 
houses  joined  together,  and  is  protected  by  numerous 
towers.  The  poor  attempts  at  re-colonising  of  recent 
times  find  the  houses  habitable  ;  there  is  wanting  only  the 
diligent  hand  of  man,  or  rather  the  strong  arm  that  pro- 
tects it.  In  front  of  the  gates  lie  the  cisterns,  often  sub- 
terranean, or  provided  with  an  artificial  stone  roof,  many 
of  which  are  still  at  the  present  day,  when  this  deserted 
seat  of  towns  has  become  pasturage,  kept  up  by  the  Be- 
douins in  order  to  water  their  flocks  from  them  in  summer. 
The  style  of  building  and  the  practice  of  art  have  doubt- 
less preserved  some  remains  of  the  older  Oriental  type, 
e.g.  the  frequent  form,  for  a  tomb,  of  the  cube  crowned 


172 


Syria  and  the 


[Book  VIII. 


with  a  pyramid,  perhaps  also  the  pigeon  towers  often 
added  to  the  tomb,  still  frequent  in  the  present  day 
throughout  Syria  ;  but,  taken  on  the  whole,  the  style  is 
the  usual  Greek  one  of  the  imperial  period.  Only  the  ab- 
sence of  wood  has  here  called  forth  a  development  of  the 
stone  arch  and  the  cupola,  which  technically  and  artistically 
lends  to  these  buildings  an  original  character.  In  con- 
trast to  the  customary  repetition  elsewhere  usual  of  tra- 
ditional forms  there  prevails  here  an  architecture  in- 
dependently suiting  the  exigencies  and  the  conditions, 
moderate  in  ornamentation,  thoroughly  sound  and  rational, 
and  not  destitute  even  of  elegance.  The  burial  places, 
which  are  cut  out  in  the  rock  walls  rising  to  the  east  and 
west  of  Petra  and  in  their  lateral  valleys,  with  their  fa- 
cades of  Doric  or  Corinthian  pillars  often  placed  in  seve- 
ral tiers  one  above  another,  and  their  pyramids  and  propy- 
laea  reminding  us  of  the  Egyptian  Thebes,  are  not  artis- 
tically pleasing,  but  imposing  by  their  size  and  richness. 
Only  a  stirring  life  and  a  high  prosperity  could  display 
such  care  for  its  dead.  In  presence  of  these  architectural 
monuments  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  inscriptions  make 
mention  of  a  theatre  in  the  "  village"  {kw/xt])  Sakkaea  and 
a  "  theatre-shaped  Odeon"  in  Canatha,  and  a  local  poet  of 
Namara  in  Batanaea  celebrates  himself  as  a  "  master  of  the 
glorious  art  of  proud  Ausonian  song." '  Thus  at  this 
eastern  limit  of  the  empire  there  was  gained  for  Hellenic 
civilisation  a  frontier-domain  which  may  be  compared 
with  the  Eomanised  region  of  the  Khine.  The  arched 
and  domed  buildings  of  eastern  Syria  well  stand  compari- 
son with  the  castles  and  tombs  of  the  nobles  and  of  the 
great  merchants  of  Belgica. 

But  the  end  came.    As  to  the  Arabian  tribes  who  im- 
migrated to  this  region  from  the  south,  the 
wanimmi^a^  historical  tradition  of  the  Komans  is  silent, 

tion  before  q^jt^^  what  the  late  records  of  the  Arabs  re- 
Mohammed. 

port  as  to  that  of  the  Ghassanids  and  their 
precursors,  can  hardly  be  fixed,  at  least  as  to  chronol- 
>  AvaovicDv  jxouar]s  v^ipoov  irpvTavn,  Kaibel,  JSp'igr.  440. 


Chap.  X.] 


Land  of  the  Nabataeans. 


173 


ogy. '  But  the  Sabaeans,  after  whom  the  place  Borechath 
(Breka  to  the  north  of  Kanawat)  is  named,  appear  in  fact  to 
be  south- Arabian  emigrants ;  and  these  were  already  settled 
here  in  the  third  century.  They  and  their  associates  may 
have  come  in  peace  and  become  settled  under  Roman  pro- 
tection, perhaps  even  may  have  carried  to  Syria  the  highly- 
developed  and  luxuriant  culture  of  southwestern  Arabia. 
So  long  as  the  empire  kept  firmly  together  and  each  of 
these  tribes  was  under  its  own  sheikh,  all  obeyed  the 
Roman  lord-paramount.  But  in  order  the  better  to  meet 
the  Arabians  or — as  they  were  now  called — Saracens  of 
the  Persian  empire  united  under  one  king,  Justinian, 
during  the  Persian  war  in  the  year  531,  placed  all  the 
phylarchs  of  the  Saracens  subject  to  the  Romans  under 
Aretas  son  of  Gabalus — Harith  Abu  son  of  Chaminos  among 
the  Arabs — and  bestowed  on  this  latter  the  title  of  king, 
which  hitherto,  it  is  added,  had  never  been  done.  This  king 
of  all  the  Arabian  tribes  settled  in  Syria  w^as  still  a  vassal  of 
the  empire ;  but,  while  he  warded  off  his  countrymen,  he  at 
the  same  time  prepared  the  place  for  them.  A  century  later, 
in  the  year  637,  Arabia  and  Syria  succumbed  to  Islam. 

^  According  to  the  Arabian  accounts  the  Benu  Salih  migrated  from 
the  region  of  Mecca  (about  190  a.d.,  according  to  the  conjectures  of 
Caussin  de  Perceval,  Hist,  des  Arabes,  i.  212)  to  Syria,  and  settled 
there  alongside  of  the  Benu-Samaida,  in  whom  Waddington  finds 
anew  the  (pv\^  'Soua.Onvcov  of  an  inscription  of  Suweda  (n.  2308).  The 
Ghassanids,  who  (according  to  Caussin,  about  205)  migrated  from 
Batn-Marr  likewise  to  Syria  and  to  the  same  region,  were  compelled 
by  the  Salihites,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Romans,  to  pay  tribute, 
and  paid  it  for  a  time,  until  they  (according  to  the  same,  about  the 
year  292)  overcame  the  Salihites,  and  their  leader  Thalaba,  son 
of  Amos,  was  recognised  by  the  Romans  as  Phylarch.  This  nar- 
rative may  contain  correct  elements ;  bvit  our  standard  authority 
remains  always  the  account  of  Procopius,  de  hello  Pers.  i.  17,  re- 
produced in  the  text.  The  phylarchs  of  individual  provinces  of 
Arabia  (i.e.  the  province  Bostra ;  JVov.  102  c.)  and  of  Palestine  (i.e. 
province  of  Petra ;  Procop.  de  hello  Pers.  i.  19),  are  older,  but  doubt- 
less not  much.  Had  a  sheikh-in-chief  of  this  sort  been  recognised 
by  the  Romans  in  the  times  before  Justinian,  the  Roman  authors 
and  the  inscriptions  would  doubtless  show  traces  of  it ;  but  there 
are  no  such  traces  from  the  period  before  Justinian. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 


JUDAEA  AND  THE  JEWS. 

The  history  of  the  Jewish  land  is  as  little  the  history  of 
the  Jewish  people  as  the  history  of  the  States  of  the 
Church  is  that  of  the  Catholics  ;  it  is  just  as  requisite  to 
separate  the  two  as  to  consider  them  together. 

The  Jews  in  the  land  of  the  Jordan,  with  whom  the 
Komans  had  to  do,  were  not  the  people  who 
priestly  rule  un-  under  their  judges  and  kings  fought  with 
der  the  seieucids.  ^^^^  ^^^^  Edom,  and  listened  to  the  dis- 
courses of  Amos  and  Hosea.  The  small  community  of 
pious  exiles,  driven  out  by  foreign  rule,  and  brought  back 
again  by  a  change  in  the  hands  wielding  that  rule,  who 
began  their  new  establishment  by  abruptly  repelling  the 
remnants  of  their  kinsmen  left  behind  in  the  old  abodes 
and  laying  the  foundation  for  the  irreconcilable  feud  be- 
tween Jews  and  Samaritans — the  ideal  of  national  exclu- 
siveness  and  priestly  control  holding  the  mind  in  chains — 
had  long  before  the  Roman  period  developed  under  the 
government  of  the  Seieucids  the  so-called  Mosaic  theoc- 
racy, a  clerical  corporation  with  the  high-priest  at  its 
head,  which,  acquiescing  in  foreign  rule  and  renouncing 
the  formation  of  a  state,  guarded  the  distinctiveness  of  its 
adherents,  and  dominated  them  under  the  aegis  of  the 
protecting  power.  This  retention  of  the  national  char- 
acter in  religious  forms,  while  ignoring  the  state,  was  the 
distinctive  mark  of  the  later  Judaism.  Probably  every 
idea  of  God  is  in  its  formation  national ;  but  no  other  God 
has  been  so  from  the  outset  the  God  only  of  his  people  as 
Jahve,  and  no  one  has  so  remained  such  without  distinc- 
tion of  time  and  place.  Those  men  returning  to  the 
Holy  Land,  who  professed  to  live  according  to  the  statutes 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jeios. 


of  Moses  and  in  fact  lived  according  to  the  statutes  of 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah/  had  remained  just  as  dependent  on 
the  great-kings  of  the  East,  and  subsequently  on  the  Se- 
leucids,  as  they  had  been  by  the  waters  of  Babylon.  A 
political  element  no  more  attached  to  this  organisation 
than  to  the  Armenian  or  the  Greek  Church  under  its 
patriarchs  in  the  Turkish  empire  ;  no  free  current  of  polit- 
ical development  pervades  this  clerical  restoration  ;  none 
of  the  grave  and  serious  obligations  of  a  commonwealth 
standing  on  its  own  basis  hampered  the  priests  of  the 
temple  of  Jerusalem  in  the  setting  up  of  the  kingdom  of 
Jahve  upon  earth. 

The  reaction  did  not  fail  to  come.    That  church- without- 

a-state  could  only  last  so  long  as  a  secular 
Ha°mo°^eans^^  great  powcr  servcd  it  as  lord-protector  or 

as  bailiff.  When  the  kingdom  of  the  Seleu- 
cids  fell  into  decay,  a  Jewish  commonwealth  was  created 
afresh  by  the  revolt  against  foreign  rule,  which  drew  its 
best  energies  precisely  from  the  enthusiastic  national 
faith.  The  high  priest  of  Salem  was  called  from  the  tem- 
ple to  the  battlefield.  The  family  of  the  Hasmonaeans 
restored  the  empire  of  Saul  and  David  nearly  in  its  old 
limits,  and  not  only  so,  but  these  warlike  high  priests 
renewed  also  in  some  measure  the  former  truly  political 
monarchy  controlling  the  priests.  But  that  monarchy, 
at  once  the  product  of,  and  the  contrast  to,  that  priestly 
rule,  was  not  according  to  the  heart  of  the  pious.  The 
Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees  separated  and  began  to 
make  war  on  one  another.  It  was  not  so  much  doctrines 
and  ritual  differences  that  here  confronted  each  other,  as, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  persistence  in  a  priestly  govern- 
ment which  simply  clung  to  religious  ordinances  and  in- 
terests, and  otherwise  was  indifferent  to  the  independence 
and  the  self-control  of  the  community  ;  on  the  other  hand, 

'  [This  statement  and  several  others  of  a  kindred  tenor  in  this 
chapter  appear  to  rest  on  an  unhesitating  acceptance  of  views 
entertained  by  a  recent  school  of  Old  Testament  criticism,  as  to 
which  it  may  at  least  be  said  :  Adfmc  sub  iudice  Us  est. — Tr.] 


176 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


the  monarchy  aiming  at  pohtical  development  and  en- 
deavouring to  procure  for  the  Jewish  people,  by  fighting 
and  by  treaty,  its  place  once  more  in  the  political  conflict, 
of  which  the  Syrian  kingdom  was  at  that  time  the  arena. 
The  former  tendency  dominated  the  multitude,  the  latter 
had  the  preponderance  in  intelligence  and  in  the  upper 
classes  ;  its  most  considerable  champion  was  king  lanna- 
eus  Alexander,  who  during  his  whole  reign  was  at  enmity 
not  less  with  the  Syrian  rulers  than  with  his  own  Pharisees 
(iv.  165).  Although  it  was  properly  but  the  other,  and 
in  fact  the  more  natural  and  more  potent,  expression  of 
the  national  revival,  it  yet  by  its  greater  freedom  of  think- 
ing and  acting  came  into  contact  with  the  Hellenic  char- 
acter, and  was  regarded  especially  by  its  pious  opponents 
as  foreign  and  unbelieving. 

But  the  inhabitants  of  Palestine  were  only  a  portion, 
and  not  the  most  important  portion,  of  the 
Diaspora!^^  Jcws  ;  the  Jcwisli  commuuitics  of  Babylonia, 
Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  were  far  superior 
to  those  of  Palestine  even  after  their  regeneration  by  the 
Maccabees.  The  Jewish  Diaspora  in  the  imperial  period 
was  of  more  significance  than  the  latter  ;  and  it  was  an 
altogether  peculiar  phenomenon. 

The  settlements  of  the  Jews  beyond  Palestine  grew  only 
in  a  subordinate  degree  out  of  the  same  impulse  as  those 
of  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Hellenes.  From  the  outset 
an  agricultural  people  and  dwelling  far  from  the  coast, 
their  settlements  abroad  were  a  non-free  and  comparatively 
late  formation,  a  creation  of  Alexander  or  of  his  marshals.  * 

'  Whether  the  legal  position  of  the  Jews  in  Alexandria  is  warrant- 
ably  traced  back  by  Josephus  {contra  Ap.  ii.  4)  to  Alexander  is  so 
far  doubtful,  as,  to  the  best  of  our  knowledge,  not  he,  but  the  first 
Ptolemy,  settled  Jews  in  masses  there  (Josephus,  Arch.  xii.  i ; 
Appian,  Syr.  50).  The  remarkable  similarity  of  form  assumed  by 
the  bodies  of  Jews  in  the  different  states  of  the  Diadochi  must,  if 
it  is  not  based  on  Alexander's  ordinances,  be  traced  to  rivalry  and 
imitation  in  the  founding  of  towns.  The  fact  that  Palestine  was 
half  Egyptian  half  Syrian,  doubtless  exercised  an  essential  influence , 
in  the  case  of  these  settlements. 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


177 


In  those  immense  efforts  at  founding  Greek  towns  con- 
tinued throughout  generations,  such  as  never  before  and 
never  afterwards  occurred  to  a  like  extent,  the  Jews  had 
a  conspicuous  share  however  singular  it  was  to  invoke 
their  aid  ill  particular  towards  the  Hellenising  of  the  East. 
This  was  the  case  above  all  with  Egypt.  The  most  con- 
siderable of  all  the  towns  created  by  Alexander,  Alexan- 
dria on  the  Nile,  was  since  the  times  of  the  first  Ptolemy, 
who  after  the  occupation  of  Palestine  transferred  thither 
a  mass  of  its  inhabitants,  almost  as  much  a  city  of  the 
Jews  as  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Jews  there  were  to  be 
esteemed  at  least  equal  to  those  of  Jerusalem  in  number, 
wealth,  intelligence,  and  organisation.  In  the  first  times 
of  the  empire  there  was  reckoned  a  million  of  Jews  to 
eight  millions  of  Egyptians,  and  their  influence,  it  may  be 
presumed,  transcended  this  numerical  proportion.  We 
have  already  observed  that,  in  rivalry  with  these,  the  Jews 
in  the  Syrian  capital  of  the  empire  had  been  similarly 
organised  and  developed  (p.  139).  The  diffusion  and  the 
importance  of  the  Jews  of  Asia  Minor  are  attested  among 
other  things  by  the  attempt  which  was  made  under  Augus- 
tus by  the  Ionian  Greek  cities,  apparently  after  joint 
concert,  to  compel  their  Jewish  fellow  townsmen  either 
to  withdrawal  from  their  faith  or  to  full  assumption  of 
civic  burdens.  Beyond  doubt  there  were  independently 
organised  bodies  of  Jews  in  all  the  new  Hellenic  founda- 
tions,' and  withal  in  numerous  old  Hellenic  towns,  even 
in  Hellas  proper,  e.g.  in  Corinth.  The  organisation  was 
placed  throughout  on  the  footing  that  the  nationality  of 
the  Jews  with  the  far-reaching  consequences  drawn  from 

'  The  community  of  Jews  in  Smyrna  is  mentioned  in  an  inscrip- 
tion recently  found  there  (Reinach,  Eevue  des  etudes  juives,  1883,  p. 
161 :  'Pov(f)e7va  ^lovBal  (a)  apxicrvvaycayhs  KareaKevacrev  rh  ivaSpiov  rots 
aireAevdepois  koI  6p€(x{iJ.)a(TLv  ix-qh^vus  a.\{\)ov  i^ovaiav  exovros  Q(h\iaL  rivd' 
el  Se  Tis  To\fiii<T^L^  Scixrei  rep  UpuraTw  ra/j.€ia}  {STjvaplous)  os^,  Kal  rcf 
edvei  rS>v  'lovdaiwu  (drjvaplovs)  a  Tovttjs  ttjs  iiriypacprj^  rh  avTiypacpov 
oTToKetTot  6ts  rh  apx^tov.  Simple  collegia  are,  in  penal  threats  of  this 
sort,  not  readily  put  on  a  level  with  the  state  or  the  community. 
Vol.  II.— 1^ 


178 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


it  by  themselves  was  preserved,  and  only  tlie  use  of  the 
Greek  language  was  required  of  them.  Thus  amidst  this 
Graecising,  into  which  the  East  was  at  that  time  coaxed 
or  forced  by  those  in  authority,  the  Jews  of  the  Greek 
towns  became  Greek-speaking  Orientals. 

That  in  the  Jew-communities  of  the  Macedonian  towns 
the  Greek  language  not  merely  attained  to 

Greek  language.  ...  £   -  , 

dominion  m  the  natural  way  oi  intercourse, 
but  was  a  compulsory  ordinance  imposed  upon  them, 
seems  of  necessity  to  result  from  the  state  of  the  case.  In 
a  similar  way  Trajan  subsequently  Komanised  Dacia  with 
colonists  from  Asia  Minor.  Without  this  compulsion,  the 
external  uniformity  in  the  foundation  of  towns  could  not 
have  been  carried  out,  and  this  material  for  Hellenising 
generally  could  not  have  been  employed.  The  govern- 
ments went  in  this  respect  very  far  and  achieved  much. 
Already  under  the  second  Ptolemy,  and  at  his  instigation, 
the  sacred  writings  of  the  Jews  were  translated  into  Greek 
in  Egypt,  and  at  least  at  the  beginning  of  the  imperial 
period  the  knowledge  of  Hebrew  among  the  Jews  of  Alex- 
andria was  nearly  as  rare  as  that  of  the  original  languages 
of  Scripture  is  at  present  in  the  Christian  world  ;  there  was 
nearly  as  much  discussion  as  to  the  faults  of  translation  of 
the  so-called  Seventy  Alexandrians  as  on  the  part  of  pious 
men  among  us  regarding  the  errors  of  Luther's  translation. 
The  national  language  of  the  Jews  had  at  this  epoch  dis- 
appeared everywhere  from  the  intercourse  of  life,  and 
maintained  itself  only  in  ecclesiastical  use  somewhat  like 
the  Latin  language  in  the  religious  domain  of  Catholicism. 
In  Judaea  itself  its  place  had  been  taken  by  the  Aramaic 
popular  language  of  Syria,  akin  no  doubt  to  the  Hebrew ; 
the  Jews  outside  of  Judaea,  with  whom  we  are  concerned, 
had  entirely  laid  aside  the  Semitic  idiom,  and  it  was  not 
till  long  after  this  epoch  that  the  reaction  set  in,  which 
scholastically  brought  back  the  knowledge  and  the  use  of 
it  more  generally  among  the  Jews.  The  literary  works, 
which  they  produced  at  this  epoch  in  great  number,  were 
in  the  better  times  of  the  empire  all  Greek.    If  language 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jevjs. 


179 


alone  conditioned  nationality,  there  would  be  little  to  tell 
for  this  period  as  to  the  Jews. 

But  with  this  linguistic  compulsion,  at  first  perhaps 
severely  felt,  was  combined  the  recognition 
natfonaSJy!^  of  the  distinctive  nationality  with  all  its  con- 
sequences. Everywhere  in  the  cities  of  the 
monarchy  of  Alexander  the  burgess-body  was  formed  of 
the  Macedonians,  that  is,  those  really  Macedonian,  or  the 
Hellenes  esteemed  equal  to  them.  By  the  side  of  these 
stood,  in  addition  to  foreigners,  the  natives,  in  Alexandria 
the  Egyptians,  in  Cyrene  the  Libyans  and  generally  the 
settlers  from  the  East,  who  had  indeed  no  other  home 
than  the  new  city,  but  were  not  recognised  as  Hellenes. 
To  this  second  category  the  Jews  belonged  ;  but  they,  and 
they  only,  were  allowed  to  form,  so  to  speak,  a  community 
within  the  community,  and — while  the  other  non-burgesses 
were  ruled  by  the  authorities  of  the  burgess-body — up  to 
a  certain  degree  to  govern  themselves.'  The  "Jews,"  says 
Strabo,  "have  in  Alexandria  a  national  head  (iOvdpxrj's)  of 
their  own,  who  presides  over  the  people  (Wvos:),  and  de- 
cides processes  and  disposes  of  contracts  and  arrangements 

^  If  tlie  Alexandrian  Jews  subsequently  maintained  that  they  were 
legally  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  Alexandrian  Macedonians  (Jo- 
sephus,  contra  Ap.  ii.  4;  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  18,  7)  this  was  a  misrepresen- 
tation of  the  true  state  of  the  case.  They  were  clients  in  the  first 
instance  of  the  Phyle  of  the  Macedonians,  probably  the  most  emi- 
nent of  all,  and  therefore  named  after  Dionysos  (Theophilus,  ad 
Autolycum,  ii.  7),  and,  because  the  Jewish  quarter  was  a  part  of  this 
Phyle,  Josephus  in  his  way  makes  themselves  Macedonians.  The 
legal  position  of  the  population  of  the  Greek  towns  of  this  category 
is  most  clearly  apparent  from  the  account  of  Strabo  (in  Josephus, 
Arch.  xiv.  7,  2)  as  to  the  four  categories  of  that  of  Cyrene :  city -bur- 
gesses, husbandmen  (yewpyoi),  strangers,  and  Jews.  If  we  lay  aside 
the  metoeci,  who  have  their  legal  home  elsewhere,  there  remain  as 
Cyrenaeans  having  rights  in  their  home  the  burgesses  of  full  rights, 
that  is,  the  Hellenes  and  what  were  allowed  to  pass  as  such,  and 
the  two  categories  of  those  excluded  from  active  burgess-rights— the 
Jews,  who  form  a  community  of  their  own,  and  the  subjects,  the 
Libyans,  without  autonomy.  This  might  easily  be  so  shifted,  that 
the  two  privileged  categories  should  appear  as  having  equal  rights, 


180 


Judaea  and  the  Jews, 


[Book  VIII. 


as  if  he  ruled  an  independent  community."  This  was  done, 
because  the  Jews  indicated  a  specific  jurisdiction  of  this 
sort  as  required  by  their  nationality  or — what  amounts 
to  the  same  thing — their  religion.  Further,  the  general 
political  arrangements  had  respect  in  an  extensive  measure 
to  the  national-religious  scruples  of  the  Jews,  and  accommo- 
djited  them  as  far  as  possible  by  exemptions.  The  privi- 
lege of  dwelling  together  was  at  least  frequently  added  ; 
in  Alexandria,  e.g.  two  of  the  five  divisions  of  the  city  were 
inhabited  chiefly  by  Jews.  This  seems  not  to  have  been  the 
Ghetto  system,  but  rather  a  usage  resting  on  the  basis  of 
settlement  to  begin  with,  and  thereafter  retained  on  both 
sides,  whereby  conflicts  with  neighbours  were  in  some 
measure  obviated. 

Thus  the  Jews  came  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  the 

Macedonian  Hellenising  of  the  East  ;  their 
Diaspora!        pliaucy  and  serviceableness  on  the  one  hand, 

their  unyielding  tenacity  on  the  other,  must 
have  induced  the  very  realistic  statesmen  who  assigned 
this  course  of  action,  to  resolve  on  such  arrangements. 
Nevertheless  the  extraordinary  extent  and  significance  of 
the  Jewish  Diaspora,  as  compared  with  the  narrowness 
and  poorness  of  their  home,  remains  at  once  a  fact  and  a 
problem.  In  dealing  with  it  we  may  not  overlook  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  Palestinian  Jews  furnished  no  more 
than  the  nucleus  for  the  Jews  of  other  countries.  The 
Judaism  of  the  older  time  was  anything  but  exclusive  ; 
was,  on  the  contrary,  no  less  pervaded  by  missionary  zeal 
than  were  afterwards  Christianity  and  Islam.  The  Gospel 
makes  reference  to  Rabbis  who  traversed  sea  and  land 
to  make  a  proselyte  ;  the  admission  of  half-proselytes,  of 
whom  circumcision  was  not  expected  but  to  whom  relig- 
ious fellowship  was  yet  accorded,  is  an  evidence  of  this 
converting  zeal  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  its  most  effect- 
ive means.  Motives  of  very  various  kinds  came  to  the 
help  of  this  proselytising.  The  civil  privileges,  which  the 
Lagids  and  Seleucids  conferred  on  the  Jews,  must  have  in- 
duced a  great  number  of  non-Jewish  Orientals  and  half- 


Chap.  XL]  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  181 


Hellenes  to  attach  themselves  in  the  new  towns  to  the 
privileged  category  of  the  non-burgesses.  In  later  times 
the  decay  of  the  traditional  faith  of  the  country  helped  the 
Jewish  propaganda.  Numerous  persons,  especially  of  the 
cultivated  classes,  whose  sense  of  faith  and  morality  turned 
away  with  horror  or  derision  from  what  the  Greeks,  and 
still  more  from  what  the  Egyptians  termed  religion, 
sought  refuge  in  the  simpler  and  purer  Jewish  doctrine 
renouncing  polytheism  and  idolatry — a  doctrine  which 
largely  met  the  religious  views  resulting  from  the  develop- 
ment of  philosojohy  among  the  cultured  and  half-cultured 
circles.  There  is  a  remarkable  Greek  moral  poem,  prob- 
ably from  the  later  epoch  of  the  Roman  republic,  which  is 
drawn  from  the  Mosaic  books  on  such  a  footing  that  it 
adopts  the  doctrine  of  monotheism  and  the  universal 
moral  law,  but  avoids  everything  offensive  to  the  non-Jew 
and  all  direct  opposition  to  the  ruling  religion,  evidently 
intended  to  gain  wider  acceptance  for  this  denationalised 
Judaism.  Women  in  particular  addicted  themselves  by 
preference  to  the  Jewish  faith.  When  the  authorities  of 
Damascus  in  the  year  66  resolved  to  put  to  death  the  cap- 
tive Jews,  it  was  agreed  to  keep  this  resolution  secret,  in 
order  that  the  female  population  devoted  to  the  Jews 
might  not  prevent  its  execution.  Even  in  the  West,  where 
the  cultivated  circles  were  otherwise  averse  to  Jewish 
habits,  dames  of  rank  early  formed  an  exception  ;  Poppaea 
Sabina,  Nero's  wife,  sprung  from  a  noble  family,  was  noto- 
rious for  her  pious  Jewish  faith  and  her  zealous  protectorate 
of  the  Jews,  as  for  other  things  less  reputable.  Cases  of 
formal  transition  to  Judaism  were  not  rare  ;  the  royal  house 
of  Adiabene  for  example — king  Izates  and  his  mother 
Helena,  as  well  as  his  brother  and  successor — became  at 
the  time  of  Tiberius  and  of  Claudius  in  every  respect  Jews. 
It  certainly  was  the  case  with  all  those  Jewish  bodies,  as  it 
is  expressly  remarked  of  those  of  Antioch,  that  they  con- 
sisted in  great  part  of  proselytes. 

This  transplanting  of  Judaism  to  the  Hellenic  soil  with 
the  appropriation  of  a  foreign  language,  however  much  it 


182 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


took  place  with  a  retention  of  national  individuality,  was 
not  accomplished  without  developing  in  Juda- 

Hellenising  ten-  .         -iiPii  • 

denciesinthe  ism  itseli  a  tendency  running  counter  to  its 
Diaspora.  naturc,  and  up  to  a  certain  degree  denation- 
alising it.  How  powerfully  the  bodies  of  Jews  living 
amidst  the  Greeks  were  influenced  by  the  currents  of 
Greek  intellectual  life,  may  be  traced  in  the  literature  of 
the  last  century  before,  and  of  the  first  after,  the  birth 
of  Christ.  It  is  imbued  with  Jewish  elements  ;  and  they 
are  withal  the  clearest  heads  and  the  most  gifted  thinkers, 
who  seek  admission  either  as  Hellenes  into  the  Jewish,  or 
as  Jews  into  the  Hellenic  system.  Nicolaus  of  Damascus, 
himself  a  Pagan  and  a  noted  representative  of  the  Aristo- 
telian philosophy,  pleaded,  as  a  scholar  and  diplomatist  of 
king  Herod,  the  cause  of  his  Jewish  patron  and  of  the 
Jews  before  Agrippa  as  before  Augustus ;  and  not  only  so, 
but  his  historical  authorship  shows  a  very  earnest,  and  for 
that  epoch  significant,  attempt  to  bring  the  East  into  the 
circle  of  Occidental  research,  while  the  description  still 
preserved  of  the  youthful  years  of  the  emperor  Augustus, 
who  came  personally  into  close  contact  with  him,  is  a  re- 
markable evidence  of  the  love  and  honour  which  the 
Eoman  ruler  met  with  in  the  Greek  world.  The  disser- 
tation on  the  Sublime,  written  in  the  first  period  of  the 
empire  by  an  unknown  author,  one  of  the  finest  aesthetic 
works  preserved  to  us  from  antiquity,  certainly  proceeds, 
if  not  from  a  Jew,  at  any  rate  from  a  man  who  revered 
alike  Homer  and  Moses.'  Another  treatise,  also  anony- 
mous, upon  the  Universe — likewise  an  attempt,  respect- 
able of  its  kind,  to  blend  the  doctrine  of  Aristotle  with 
that  of  the  Stoa — was  perhaps  written  also  by  a  Jew,  and 

^  Pseudo-Longinus,  Trepl  u«|/ous,  9  :  "  Far  better  than  the  war  of  the 
gods  in  Homer  is  the  description  of  the  gods  in  their  perfection 
and  genuine  greatness  and  purity,  like  that  of  Poseidon  {llias,  xiii. 
18  £E.)«  Just  so  writes  the  legislator  of  the  Jews,  no  mean  man 
(oux  ^  Tux'^"  ai/^p),  after  he  has  worthily  apprehended  and  brought 
to  expression  the  Divine  power,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  Laws 
{Genesis^  i.  3):  'G-od  said' — what?  'Let  there  be  light,  and  there 
was  light  ;  let  the  earth  be,  and  the  earth  was.'  " 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


183 


dedicated  certainly  to  the  Jew  of  highest  repute  and 
highest  station  in  the  Neronian  age,  Tiberius  Alexander 
(p.  222),  chief  of  the  staff  to  Corbulo  and  Titus.  The 
wedding  of  the  two  worlds  of  intellect  meets  us  most 
clearly  in  the  Jewish-Alexandrian  philosophy,  the  most 
acute  and  most  palpable  expression  of  a  religious  move- 
ment, not  merely  affecting  but  also  attacking  the  essence 
of  Judaism.  The  Hellenic  intellectual  development  con- 
flicted with  national  religions  of  all  sorts,  inasmuch  as  it 
either  denied  their  views  or  else  filled  them  with  other 
contents,  drove  out  the  previous  gods  from  the  minds  of 
men  and  put  into  the  empty  places  either  nothing,  or  the 
stars  and  abstract  ideas.  These  attacks  affected  also  the 
religion  of  the  Jews.  There  was  formed  a  Neo-Judaism 
of  Hellenic  culture,  which  dealt  with  Jehovah  not  quite  so 
badly,  but  yet  not  much  otherwise,  than  the  cultivated 
Greeks  and  Romans  with  Zeus  and  Jupiter.  The  uni- 
versal expedient  of  the  so-called  allegorical  interpreta- 
tion, whereby  in  particular  the  philosophers  of  the  Stoa 
everywhere  in  courteous  fashion  eliminated  the  heathen 
national  religions,  suited  equally  well  and  equally  ill  for 
Genesis  as  for  the  gods  of  the  Iliad  ;  if  Moses  had  meant 
by  Abraham  in  a  strict  sense  understanding,  by  Sarah 
virtue,  by  Noah  righteousness,  if  the  four  streams  of  Para- 
dise were  the  four  cardinal  virtues,  then  the  most  enlight- 
ened Hellene  might  believe  in  the  Law.  But  this  pseudo- 
Judaism  was  also  a  power,  and  the  intellectual  primacy 
of  the  Jews  in  Egypt  was  apparent  above  all  in  the  fact, 
that  this  tendency  found  pre-eminently  its  supporters  in 
Alexandria. 

Notwithstanding  the  internal  separation  which  had 
taken  place  among  the  Jews  of  Palestine  and 
the  Jews  gener-  had  but  too  often  culminated  directly  in  civil 
war,  notwithstanding  the  dispersion  of  a  great 
part  of  the  Jewish  body  into  foreign  lands,  notwithstand- 
ing the  intrusion  of  foreign  ingredients  into  it  and  even 
of  the  destructive  Hellenistic  element  into  its  very  core, 
the  collective  body  of  the  Jews  remained  united  in  a  way, 


184 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  vm. 


to  which  in  the  present  day  only  the  Vatican  perhaps  and 
the  Kaaba  offer  a  certain  analogy.  The  holy  Salem  re- 
mained the  banner,  Zion's  temple  the  Palladium  of  the 
whole  Jewish  body,  whether  they  obeyed  the  Komans  or 
the  Parthians,  whether  they  spoke  Armenian  or  Greek, 
whether  even  they  believed  in  the  old  Jahve  or  in  the  new, 
who  was  none.  The  fact  that  the  protecting  ruler  con- 
ceded to  the  spiritual  chief  of  the  Jews  a  certain  secular 
power  signified  for  the  Jewish  body  just  as  much,  and  the 
small  extent  of  this  power  just  as  little,  as  the  so-called 
States  of  the  Church  in  their  time  signified  for  Roman 
Catholics.  Every  member  of  a  Jewish  community  had  to 
pay  annually  to  Jerusalem  a  c^zcZracAm on  as  temple-tribute, 
which  came  in  more  regularly  than  the  taxes  of  the  state  ; 
every  one  was  obliged  at  least  once  in  his  life  to  sacri- 
fice personally  to  Jehovah  on  the  spot  which  alone  in  the 
world  was  well-pleasing  to  Him.  Theological  science  re- 
mained common  property ;  the  Babylonian  and  Alexan- 
drian Eabbins  took  part  in  it  not  less  than  those  of 
Jerusalem.  The  feeling  cherished  with  unparalleled  te- 
nacity, of  belonging  collectively  to  one  nation — a  feeling 
which  had  established  itself  in  the  community  of  the  re- 
turning exiles  and  had  thereafter  contributed  to  create 
that  distinctive  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  Greek  world — 
maintained  its  ground  in  spite  of  dispersion  and  division. 
Most  worthy  of  remark  is  the  continued  life  of  Judaism 
itself  in  circles  whose  inward  religion  was 
detached  from  it.  The  most  noted  and,  for  us, 
the  single  clearly  palpable  representative  of  this  tendency 
in  literature,  Philo,  one  of  the  foremost  and  richest  Jews 
of  the  time  of  Tiberius,  stands  in  fact  towards  the  religion 
of  his  country  in  a  position  not  greatly  differing  from 
that  of  Cicero  towards  the  Roman ;  but  he  himself  believed 
that  he  was  not  destroying  but  fulfilling  it.  For  him  as  for 
every  other  Jew,  Moses  is  the  source  of  all  truth,  his  writ- 
ten direction  binding  law,  the  feeling  towards  him  rev- 
erence and  devout  belief.  This  sublimated  Judaism  is, 
however,  not  quite  identical  with  the  so-called  faith  in  the 


Chap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews, 


185 


gods  of  the  Stoa.  The  corporeality  of  God  vanishes  for 
Philo,  but  not  His  personality,  and  he  entirely  fails  in— 
what  is  the  essence  of  Hellenic  philosophy — the  transfer- 
ring of  the  deity  into  the  breast  of  man  ;  it  remains  his  view 
that  sinful  man  is  dependent  on  a  perfect  being  standing 
outside  of,  and  above,  him.  In  like  manner  the  new- 
Judaism  submits  itself  to  the  national  ritual  law  far  more 
unconditionally  than  the  new  heathenism.  The  struggle 
between  the  old  and  the  new  faith  was  therefore  of  a  differ- 
ent nature  in  the  Jewish  circle  than  in  the  heathen,  be- 
cause the  stake  was  a  greater  one  ;  reformed  heathenism 
contended  only  against  the  old  faith,  reformed  Judaism 
would  in  its  ultimate  consequence  destroy  the  nationality, 
which  amidst  the  inundation  of  Hellenism  necessarily  dis- 
appeared with  the  refining  away  of  the  native  faith,  and 
therefore  shrank  back  from  drawing  this  consequence. 
Hence  on  Greek  soil  and  in  Greek  language  the  form, 
if  not  the  substance,  of  the  old  faith  was  retained  and  de- 
fended with  unexampled  obstinacy,  defended  even  by  those 
who  in  substance  surrendered  before  Hellenism.  Philo 
himself,  as  we  shall  have  to  tell  further  on,  contended  and 
suffered  for  the  cause  of  the  Jews.  But  on  that  account 
the  Hellenistic  tendency  in  Judaism  never  exercised  an 
overpowering  influence  over  the  latter,  never  was  able  to 
take  its  stand  against  the  national  Judaism,  and  barely 
availed  to  mitigate  its  fanaticism  and  to  check  its  per- 
versities and  crimes.  In  all  essential  matters,  especially 
when  confronted  with  oppression  and  persecution,  the 
differences  of  Judaism  disappeared  ;  and,  unimportant  as 
was  the  Eabbinical  state,  the  religious  communion  over 
which  it  presided  was  a  considerable  and  in  certain  cir- 
cumstances formidable  power. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  which  the  Romans  found 
The  Roman  Confronting  them  when  they  entered  on  rule 
government  and  in  the  East.    CouQuest  forccs  the  hand  of 

Judaism.  ^ 

the  conqueror  not  less  than  of  the  conquered. 
The  work  of  centuries,  the  Macedonian  urban  institutions, 
could  not  be  undone  either  by  the  Arsacids  or  by  the 


186 


Judaea  and  the  Jeios. 


[Book  VIII. 


Caesars  ;  neither  Seleucia  on  the  Euphrates  nor  Antioch 
and  Alexandria  could  be  entered  upon  by  the  following 
governments  under  the  benefit  of  the  inventory.  Prob- 
ably in  presence  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  there  the  foun- 
der of  the  imperial  government  took,  as  in  so  many 
other  things,  the  policy  of  the  first  Lagid  as  his  guiding 
rule,  and  furthered  rather  than  hampered  the  Judaism  of 
the  East  in  its  distinctive  position  ;  and  this  procedure 
thereupon  became  throughout  the  model  for  his  succes- 
sors. We  have  already  mentioned  that  the  communities 
of  Asia  Minor  under  Augustus  made  the  attempt  to  draw 
upon  their  Jewish  fellow-citizens  uniformly  in  the  levy, 
and  no  longer  to  allow  them  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  ; 
but  Agrippa  decided  against  them  and  maintained  the 
8iatu8  quo  in  favour  of  the  Jews,  or  rather  perhaps,  now 
for  the  first  time  legalised  the  exemption  of  the  Jews  from 
military  service  and  their  Sabbath  privilege,  that  had  been 
previously  conceded  according  to  circumstances  only  by 
individual  governors  or  communities  of  the  Greek  prov- 
inces. Augustus  further  directed  the  governors  of  Asia 
not  to  apply  the  rigorous  imperial  laws  respecting  unions 
and  assemblies  against  the  Jews.  But  the  Eoman  gov- 
ernment did  not  fail  to  see  that  the  exempt  position  con- 
ceded to  the  Jews  in  the  East  was  not  compatible  with  the 
absolute  obligation  of  those  belonging  to  the  empire  to 
fulfil  the  services  required  by  the  state  ;  that  the  guar- 
anteed distinctive  position  of  the  Jewish  body  carried 
the  hatred  of  race  and  under  certain  circumstances  civil 
war  into  the  several  towns  ;  that  the  pious  rule  of  the 
authorities  at  Jerusalem  over  all  the  Jews  of  the  empire 
had  a  perilous  range  ;  and  that  in  all  this  there  lay  a 
practical  injury  and  a  danger  in  principle  for  the  state. 
The  internal  dualism  of  the  empire  expresses  itself  in 
nothing  more  sharply  than  in  the  different 
^  treatment  of  the  Jews  in  the  respective  do- 

mains of  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages.  In  the  West 
autonomous  bodies  of  Jews  were  never  allowed.  There  was 
toleration  doubtless  there  for  the  Jewish  religious  usages 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


187 


as  for  the  Syrian  and  the  Egyptian,  or  rather  somewhat 
less  than  for  these  ;  Augustus  showed  himself  favourable 
to  the  Jewish  colony  in  the  suburb  of  Eome  beyond  the 
Tiber,  and  made  supplementary  allowance  in  his  largesses 
for  those  who  missed  them  on  account  of  the  Sabbath. 
But  he  personally  avoided  all  contact  with  the  Jewish 
worship  as  with  the  Egyptian  ;  and,  as  he  himself  when 
in  Egypt  had  gone  out  of  the  way  of  the  sacred  ox,  so  he 
thoroughly  approved  the  conduct  of  his  son  Gains,  when 
he  went  to  the  East,  in  passing  by  Jerusalem.  Under 
Tiberius  in  the  year  19  the  Jewish  worship  was  even  pro- 
hibited along  with  the  Egyptian  in  Kome  and  in  all  Ita^y, 
and  those  who  did  not  consent  openly  to  renounce  it  and 
to  throw  the  holy  vessels  into  the  fire  were  expelled  from 
Italy — so  far  as  they  could  not  be  employed  as  useful 
for  miUtary  service  in  convict-companies,  whereupon  not 
a  few  became  liable  to  court-martial  on  account  of  their 
religious  scruples.  If,  as  we  shall  see  afterwards,  this  same 
emperor  in  the  East  almost  anxiously  evaded  every  con- 
flict with  the  Rabbi,  it  is  here  plainly  apparent  that  he, 
the  ablest  ruler  whom  the  empire  had,  just  as  clearly  per- 
ceived the  dangers  of  the  Jewish  immigration  as  the  un- 
fairness and  the  impossibility  of  setting  aside  Judaism, 
where  it  existed.^  Under  the  later  rulers,  as  we  shall  see 
in  the  sequel,  the  attitude  of  disinclination  towards  the 
Jews  of  the  West  did  not  in  the  main  undergo  change, 
although  they  in  other  respects  follow  more  the  example 
of  Augustus  than  that  of  Tiberius.  They  did  not  prevent 
the  Jews  from  collecting  the  temple-tribute  in  the  form 

^  The  Jew  Pliilo  sets  down  the  treatment  of  the  Jews  in  Italy  to 
the  account  of  Sejanus  {Leg.  24 ;  in  Flacc.  1),  that  of  the  Jews  in 
the  East  to  the  account  of  the  emperor  himself.  But  Josephus 
rather  traces  back  what  happened  in  Italy  to  a  scandal  in  the  capi- 
tal, which  had  been  occasioned  by  three  Jewish  pious  swindlers  and 
a  lady  of  rank  converted  to  Judaism  ;  and  Philo  himself  states  that 
Tiberius,  after  the  fall  of  Sejanus,  allowed  to  the  governors  only  cer- 
tain modifications  in  the  procedure  against  the  Jews.  The  policy  of 
the  emperor  and  that  of  his  ministers  towards  the  Jews  was  essen- 
tially the  same. 


188  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  [Book  VIII. 


of  voluntary  contributions  and  sending  it  to  Jerusalem. 
They  were  not  checked,  if  they  preferred  to  bring  a  legal 
dispute  before  a  Jewish  arbiter  rather  than  before  a  Eoman 
tribunal.  Of  compulsory  levy  for  service,  such  as  Tiberius 
enjoined,  there  is  no  further  mention  afterwards  in  the 
West.  But  the  Jews  never  obtained  in  heathen  Borne  or 
generally  in  the  Latin  West  a  publicly  recognised  dis- 
tinctive position  and  publicly  recognised  separate  courts. 
Above  all  in  the  West — apart  from  the  capital,  which  in 
the  nature  of  the  case  represented  the  East  also,  and  al- 
ready in  Cicero's  time  included  in  it  a  numerous  body  of 
Jews — the  Jewish  communities  nowhere  had  special  extent 
or  importance  in  the  earlier  imperial  period.^ 

It  was  only  in  the  East  that  the  government  yielded 
from  the  first,  or  rather  made  no  attempt  to 
■  change  the  existing  state  of  things  and  to  ob- 
viate the  dangers  thence  resulting ;  and  accordingly,  as 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews  were  first  made  known  to  the 
Latin  world  in  the  Latin  language  by  means  of  the  Chris- 
tians, the  great  Jewish  movements  of  the  imperial  period 
were  restricted  throughout  to  the  Greek  East.  Here  no 
attempt  was  made  gradually  to  stop  the  spring  of  hatred 
toward  the  Jews  by  assigning  to  them  a  separate  position 
in  law,  but  just  as  little — apart  from  the  caprice  and  per- 
versities of  individual  rulers — was  the  hatred  and  perse- 
cution of  the  Jews  fomented  on  the  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment. In  reality  the  catastrophe  of  Judaism  did  not 
arise  from  the  treatment  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  in  the 
East.  It  was  simply  the  relations,  as  they  became  fate- 
fully  developed,  of  the  imperial  government  to  the  Jewish 
Kabbinical  state  that  not  merely  brought  about  the  de- 
struction of  the  commonwealth  of  Jerusalem,  but  further 
shook  and  changed  the  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  empire 

'  Agrippa  II. ,  who  enumerates  the  Jewish  settlements  abroad  (in 
Philo,  Leg.  ad  Oaium,  36),  names  no  country  westward  of  Greece, 
and  among  the  strangers  sojourning  in  Jerusalem,  whom  the 
Book  of  Acts,  ii.  5  f.,  records,  only  Romans  are  named  from  the 
West. 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


189 


generally.  We  turn  to  describe  the  events  in  Palestine 
under  the  Roman  rule. 

The  state  of  things  in  northern  Syria  was  organised  by 

the  generals  of  the  republic,  Pompeius  and  his 
the  repuwic!^    immediate  successors,  on  such  a  footing,  that 

the  larger  powers  that  were  beginning  to  be 
formed  there  were  again  reduced,  and  the  whole  land 
was  broken  up  into  single  city-domains  and  petty  lord- 
ships. The  Jews  were  most  severely  affected  by  this  course ; 
not  merely  were  they  obliged  to  give  up  all  possessions 
which  they  had  hitherto  gained,  particularly  the  whole 
coast  (iv.  169),  but  Gabinius  had  even  broken  up  the  em- 
pire formerly  subsisting  into  five  independent  self-admin- 
istering districts,  and  withdrawn  from  the  high  priest 
Hyrcanus  his  secular  privileges  (iv.  187).  Thus,  as  the 
protecting  power  was  restored  on  the  one  hand,  so  was 
the  pure  theocracy  on  the  other. 

This,  however,  was  soon  changed.    Hyrcanus,  or  rather 

the  minister  governing  for  him,  the  Idumaean 
iduSaean.*^^    Autipatcr,'  attained  once  more  the  leading 

position  in  southern  Syria  doubtless  through 
Gabinius  himself,  to  whom  he  knew  how  to  make  himself 

'  Antipater  began  his  career  as  governor  {<TTpa.rf]'^6s)  of  Idumaea 
(Josephus,  Afcli.  xiv.  1,  3),  and  is  there  called  administrator  of  the 
Jewish  kingdom  {pTwv  'louSaioji/  e7rt/ueA7?T7]s,  Joseph.  Arcli.  xiv.  8,  1), 
that  is,  nearly  first  minister.  More  is  not  implied  in  the  narrat- 
ive of  Josephus  coloured  with  flattery  towards  Rome  as  towards 
Herod  {Arch.  xiv.  8,  5  ;  Bell.  Jud.  i.  10,  3),  that  Caesar  had  left  to 
Antipater  the  option  of  himself  determining  his  position  of  power 
(Suj/ao-reia),  and,  when  the  latter  left  the  decision  with  him,  had 
appointed  him  administrator  {HirpoTros)  of  Judaea.  This  is  not,  as 
Marquardt,  Staatsalfh.  v.  1,  408,  would  have  it,  the  (at  that  time  not 
yet  existing)  Roman  procuratorship  of  the  imperial  period,  but  an 
office  formally  conferred  by  the  Jewish  ethnarch,  an  imrpoir-fi,  like 
that  mentioned  by  Josephus,  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  18,  6.  In  the  official 
documents  of  Caesar's  time  the  high  priest  and  ethnarch  Hyrcanus 
alone  represents  the  Jews  ;  Caesar  gave  to  Antipater  what  could  be 
granted  to  the  subjects  of  a  dependent  state,  Roman  burgess  rights 
and  personal  immunity  (Josephus,  Arch.  xiv.  8,  3  ;  Bell.  Jud.  i.  9, 
5),  but  he  did  not  make  him  an  official  of  Rome.    That  Herod, 


190 


Judaea  and  the  Jews, 


[Book  VIIL 


indispensable  in  his  Parthian  and  Egyptian  undertakings 
(iv.  396).  After  the  pillage  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  by 
Crassus  the  insurrection  of  the  Jews  thereby  occasioned 
was  chiefly  subdued  by  him  (iv.  407).  It  was  for  him  a 
fortunate  dispensation  that  the  Jewish  government  was  not 
compelled  to  interfere  actively  in  the  crisis  between  Caesar 
and  Pompeius,  for  whom  it,  like  the  whole  East,  had  de- 
clared. Nevertheless,  after  the  brother  and  rival  of  Hyrca- 
nus,  Aristobulus  as  well  as  his  son  Alexander,  had  on  account 
of  their  taking  part  for  Caesar  lost  their  lives  at  the  hands 
of  the  Pompeians,  the  second  son,  Antigonus,  would  doubt- 
less after  Caesar's  victory  have  been  installed  by  the  latter 
as  ruler  in  Judaea.  But  when  Caesar,  coming  to  Egypt  after 
the  decisive  victory,  found  himself  in  a  dangerous  position  at 
Alexandria,  it  was  chiefly  Antipater  who  delivered  him  from 
it  (iv.  515),  and  this  carried  the  day  ;  Antigonus  had  to 
give  way  before  the  more  recent,  but  more  effective  fidelity. 
Caesar's  personal  gratitude  was  not  the  least  element  in 

promoting  the  formal  restoration  of  the  Jewish 
arrrngements.    state.    The  Jewish  kingdom  obtained  the  best 

position  which  could  be  granted  to  a  client- 
state,  complete  freedom  from  dues  to  the  Romans  '  and 
driven  out  of  Judaea,  obtained  from  the  Romans  a  Roman  officer's 
post  possibly  in  Samaria,  is  credible  ;  but  the  designations  arpa.rtYybs 
T7\%  Koi\7}s  2upms  (Josephus,  Arch.  xiv.  9,  5,  c.  11,  4),  or  a-TpaTTjyhs 
KoL\7)s  2upi'as  Kol  ^afxapdas  {Bell.  Jud.  1.  10,  8)  are  at  least  misleading, 
and  witli  as  much  incorrectness  the  same  author  names  Herod  sub- 
sequently, for  the  reason  that  he  is  to  serve  as  counsellor  rots  iin- 
rpoirevovcri  ttjs  'Xvpias  {Arch.  xv.  10,  3),  even  Swpi'as  oAtjs  iirirpoTrov 
{Bell.  Jud.  i.  20,  4),  where  Marquardt's  change,  Staatsalth.  v  1.  408, 
Ko'iKris  destroys  the  sense. 

1  In  the  decree  of  Caesar  in  Josephus,  Arch.  xiv.  10,  5,  6,  the  read- 
ing which  results  from  Epiphanius  is  the  only  possible  one  ;  accord- 
ing to  this  the  land  is  freed  from  the  tribute  (imposed  by  Pompeius  ; 
Josephus,  Arch.  xiv.  4,  4)  from  the  second  year  of  the  current  lease 
onward,  and  it  is  further  ordained  that  the  town  of  Joppa,  which  at 
that  time  passed  over  from  Roman  into  Jewish  possession,  should 
continue  indeed  to  deliver  the  fourth  part  of  field-fruits  at  Sidon  to 
the  Romans,  but  for  that  there  should  be  granted  to  Hyrcanus,  like- 
wise at  Sidon,  as  an  equivalent  annually  20,675  bushels  of  grain, 
besides  which  the  people  of  Joppa  paid  also  the  tenth  to  Hyrcanus. 


Chap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


191 


from  military  occupation  and  levy/  whereas  certainly  tlie 
duties  and  the  expenses  of  frontier-defence  were  to  be 
undertaken  by  the  native  government.  The  town  of 
Joppa,  and  thereby  the  connection  with  the  sea,  were 
given  back,  the  independence  of  internal  administration 
as  well  as  the  free  exercise  of  religion  was  guaranteed  ; 
the  re-establishment,  hitherto  refused,  of  the  fortifications 
of  Jerusalem  razed  by  Pompeius  was  allowed 
(707).  Thus  under  the  name  of  the  Hasmo- 
naean  prince,  a  half  foreigner — for  the  Idumaeans  stood 
towards  the  Jews  proper  that  returned  from  Babylon 
nearly  as  did  the  Samaritans — governed  the  Jewish  state 
under  the  protection  and  according  to  the  will  of  Eome. 
The  Jews  with  national  sentiments  were  anything  but  in- 
clined towards  the  new  government.  The  old  families, 
who  led  in  the  council  of  Jerusalem,  held  in  their  hearts 
to  Aristobulus,  and,  after  his  death,  to  his  son  Antigonus. 
The  whole  narrative  otherwise  shows  that  the  Jewish  state  was 
thenceforth  free  from  payment  of  tribute  ;  the  circumstance  that 
Herod  pays  ^dpot  from  the  districts  assigned  to  Cleopatra  which  he 
leases  from  her  i^Arch.  xv.  4,  2,  4,  c.  5,  3)  only  confirms  the  rule. 
If  Appian,  B.  C.  v.  75,  adduces  among  the  kings  on  whom  Antonius 
laid  tribute  Herod  for  Idumaea  and  Samaria,  Judaea  is  not  absent 
here  without  good  reason;  and  even  for  these  accessory  lands  the  trib- 
ute may  have  been  remitted  to  him  by  Augustus.  The  detailed  and 
trustworthy  account  as  to  the  census  enjoined  by  Quirlnius  shows 
with  entire  clearness  that  the  land  was  hitherto  free  from  Roman 
tribute. 

'  In  the  same  decree  it  is  said  :  kol  'dirois  /xrjSets  /uirjTe  &pxoiv  f^i]re 
crrpaTfiyh'i  7rpe(rfievTi]s  iv  rots  '6pois  ra>v 'lovSalcav  aj'ttrrot  ("  perhaps 
ffwiffTa,  "  Wilamowitz)  av/n^axiav  Kal  (TTparidoTas  e|t^  (so  Wilamowitz, 
for  e'leiTj)  ^  TCI  xP'^/J-aTa  rovrav  eiairpoLTTeaOai  ^  ets  Trapax^i/^aaiav  ^ 
&\\cf)  Ttj/I  ovo/uLari  dAA.'  eivai  iravraxSOev  aveirr]ped(TTOVi  (comp.  Arch.  xiv. 
10,  2  :  ■Kapax^i'IJ-0'(r'iav  5e  koX  XRVfJi'^Ta  Trpdrrecrdat  ov  SoKi/j-d^co).  This 
corresponds  in  the  main  to  the  formula  of  the  charter,  a  little 
older,  for  Termessus  {C.  I.  L.  i.  n.  204)  :  nei  quis  magistratu  prove 
magistratu  legatus  ne[ive]  quis  alius  meilites  in  oppidum  Thermesum 
.  agrumve  .  .  .  Memandi  caussa  introducito  .  .  . 
nisei  senatu's  nominatim  utei  Thermesum  .  .  .  in  hihernacula 
meilites  deducantur  decreverit.  The  marching  through  is  accordingly 
allowed.  In  the  Privilegium  for  Judaea  the  levy  seems,  moreover, 
to  have  been  prohibited. 


192  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  [Book  Vlll. 


In  tlie  mountains  of  Galilee  tlie  fanatics  fought  quite  as 
much  against  the  Romans  as  against  their  own  govern- 
ment ;  when  Antipater's  son  Herod  took  captive  Ezekias, 
the  leader  of  this  wild  band,  and  had  caused  him  to  be 
put  to  death,  the  priestly  council  of  Jerusalem  compelled 
the  weak  Hyrcanus  to  banish  Herod  under  the  pretext 
of  a  violation  of  religious  precepts.  The  latter  thereupon 
entered  the  Roman  army,  and  rendered  good  service  to 
the  Caesarian  governor  of  Syria  against  the  insurrection 
of  the  last  Pompeians.  But  when,  after  the  murder  of 
Caesar,  the  republicans  gained  the  upper  hand  in  the 
East,  Antipater  was  again  the  first  who  not  merely  sub- 
mitted to  the  stronger  but  placed  the  new  holders  of 
power  under  obligation  to  him  by  a  rapid  levying  of  the 
contribution  imposed  by  them. 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  leader  of  the  republicans, 
when  he  withdrew  from  Syria,  left  Antipater 
in  his  position,  and  entrusted  his  son  Herod 
even  with  a  command  in  Syria.    Then,  when  Antipater 
died,  poisoned  as  it  was  said  by  one  of  his  officers,  Antigo- 
nus,  who  had  found  a  refuge  with  his  father-in-law,  the 
prince  Ptolemaeus  of  Chalcis,  believed  that  the  moment 
had  come  to  set  aside  his  weak  uncle.    But  the  sons  of 
Antipater,  Phasael  and  Herod,  thoroughly  defeated  his 
band,  and  Hyrcanus  agreed  to  grant  to  them  the  position 
of  their  father,  nay,  even  to  receive  Herod  in  a  certain 
measure  into  the  reigning  house  by  betrothing  to  him  his 
niece  Mariamne.    Meanwhile  the  leaders  of  the  republican 
party  were  beaten  at  Philippi.    The  opposition  in  Jerusa- 
I  lem  hoped  now  to  procure  the  overthrow  of  the  hated  An- 
'  tipatrids  at  the  hands  of  the  victors  ;  but  Antonius,  to 
whom  fell  the  office  of  arbiter,  decidedly  repelled  their 
deputations  first  in  Ephesus,  then  in  Antioch,  and  last 
in  Tyre  ;  caused,  indeed,  the  last  envoys  to  be  put  to 
death  ;  and  confirmed  Phasael  and  Jlerod  for- 
merly as  "  tetrarchs    of  the  Jews  (713). 

*  This  title,  which  primarily  denotes  the  collegiate  tetrarchate, 
such  as  was  usual  among  the  Galatians,  was  then  more  generally  em- 


Chap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews, 


193 


Soon  the  vicissitudes  of  great  policy  dragged  the  Jew- 
ish state  once  more  into  their  vortex.  The 
in  Judaea/*"^   invasion  of  the  Parthians  in  the  following  year 
S^^^)  P^^  fii's^  instance  to  the 

rule  of  the  Antipatrids.  The  pretender  Antigonus  joined 
them,  and  possessed  himself  of  Jerusalem  and  almost  the 
whole  territory.  Hyrcanus  went  as  a  prisoner  to  the  Par- 
thians :  Phasael,  the  eldest  son  of  Antipater,  likewise  a 
captive,  put  himself  to  death  in  prison.  With  great  dif- 
ficulty Herod  concealed  his  family  in  a  rock-stronghold  on 
the  border  of  Judaea,  and  went  himself  a  fugitive  and  in 
search  of  aid  first  to  Egypt,  and,  when  he  no  longer  found 
Antonius  there,  to  the  two  holders  of  power  just  at  that 
time  ruling  in  new  harmony  (714)  at  Kome. 
Readily  they  allowed  him — as  indeed  it  was 
only  in  the  interest  of  Rome — to  gain  back  for  himself  the 
Jewish  kingdom  ;  he  returned  to  Syria,  so  far  as  the  mat- 
ter depended  on  the  Romans,  as  recognised 
judaea^^"^      rulcr,  and  even  equipped  with  the  royal  title. 

But,  just  like  a  pretender,  he  had  to  wrest  the 
land  not  so  much  from  the  Parthians  as  from  the  patriots. 
He  fought  his  battles  pre-eminently  with  the  help  of  Sa- 
maritans and  Idumaeans  and  hired  soldiers,  and  attained 
at  length,  through  the  support  of  the  Roman  legions,  to 
the  possession  of  the  long-defended  capital.  The  Roman 
executioners  delivered  him  likewise  from  his  rival  of  many 
years,  Antigonus  ;  his  own  made  havoc  among  the  noble 
families  of  the  council  of  Jerusalem. 

But  the  days  of  trouble  were  by  no  means  over  with  his 
installation.  The  unfortunate  expedition  of  Antonius  against 

ployed  lox  the  rule  of  all  together,  nay,  even  for  the  rule  of  one, 
but  always  as  in  rank  inferior  to  that  of  king.  In  this  way,  besides 
Galatia,  it  appears  also  in  Syria,  perhaps  from  the  time  of  Pompeius, 
certainly  from  that  of  Augustus.  The  juxtaposition  of  an  ethnarch 
and  two  tetrarchs,  as  it  was  arranged  in  the  year  713 
for  Judaea,  according  to  Josephus  {Arch.  xiv.  13,  1 ; 
Bell.  Jud.  1.  12,  5),  is  not  again  met  with  elsewhere  ;  Pherores  te- 
trarch  of  Peraea  under  his  brother  Herodes  {Bell.  Jud,  i.  24,  5)  is 
analogous. 

Vol.  II.— 13 


194 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


the  Parthians  remained  without  consequences  for  Herod, 
since  the  victors  did  not  venture  to  advance 

Herod  under        •    i_  ■         ^     i_    ^  ny       i  i  i 

Antonius  and  luto  byria ;  Dut  be  sunered  severely  under 
Cleopatra.  ^^^^  increasing  claims  of  the  Egyptian 

queen,  who  at  that  time  more  than  Antonius  ruled  the 
East  ;  her  womanly  policy,  primarily  directed  to  the  ex- 
tension of  her  domestic  power  and  above  all  of  her  reve- 
nues, was  far  indeed  from  obtaining  at  the  hands  of  Anto- 
nius all  that  she  desired,  but  she  wrested  at  any  rate  from 
the  king  of  the  Jews  a  portion  of  his  most  valuable  pos- 
sessions on  the  Syrian  coast  and  in  the  territory  lying  be- 
tween Egypt  and  Syria,  nay,  even  the  rich  balsam  planta- 
tions and  palm-groves  of  Jericho,  and  laid  upon  him  se- 
vere financial  burdens.  In  order  to  maintain  the  remnant 
of  his  rule,  he  was  obliged  either  himself  to  lease  the  new 
Syrian  possessions  of  the  queen  or  to  be  guarantee  for 
other  lessees  less  able  to  pay.  After  all  these  troubles, 
and  in  expectation  of  still  worse  demands  as  httle  capable 
of  being  declined,  the  outbreak  of  the  war  between  An- 
tonius and  Caesar  was  hopeful  for  him,  and  the  fact  that 
Cleopatra  in  her  selfish  perversity  released  him  from  active 
participation  in  the  war,  because  he  needed  his  troops  to 
collect  her  Syrian  revenues,  was  a  further  piece  of  good 
fortune,  since  this  facilitated  his  submission  to  the  victor. 
Fortune  favoured  him  yet  further  on  his  changing  sides  ; 
he  was  able  to  intercept  a  band  of  faithful  gladiators  of  An- 
tonius, who  were  marching  from  Asia  Minor  through  Syria 

towards  Egypt  to  lend  assistance  to  their  mas- 
August™^^^    ter.    When  he,  before  resorting  to  Caesar  at 

Rhodes  to  obtain  his  pardon,  caused  the  last 
male  offshoot  of  the  Maccabaean  house,  the  eighty  years 
old  Hyrcanus,  to  whom  the  house  of  Antipater  was  in- 
debted for  its  position,  to  be  at  all  events  put  to  death,  he 
in  reality  exaggerated  the  necessary  caution.  Caesar  did 
what  policy  bade  him  do,  especially  as  the  support  of 
Herod  was  of  importance  for  the  intended  Egyptian  expe- 
dition. He  confirmed  Herod,  glad  to  be  vanquished,  in 
his  dominion,  and  extended  it,  partly  by  giving  back  the 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


195 


possessions  wrested  from  him  by  Cleopatra,  partly  by  fur- 
ther gifts  ;  the  whole  coast  from  Gaza  to  Strato's  Tower,  ^ 
the  later  Caesarea,  the  Samaritan  region  inserted  between 
Judaea  and  Galilee,  and  a  number  of  towns  to  the  east  of 
the  Jordan  thenceforth  obeyed  Herod.  On  the  consoli- 
dation of  the  Koman  monarchy  the  Jewish  principality 
was  withdrawn  from  the  reach  of  further  external  crises. 
From  the  Eoman  standpoint  the  conduct  of  the  new 

dynasty  appears  correct,  in  a  way  to  draw 
§eIod"°'^''*°^  tears  from  the  eyes  of  the  observer.    It  took 

part  at  first  for  Pompeius,  then  for  Caesar  the 
father,  then  for  Cassius  and  Brutus,  then  for  the  triumvirs, 
then  for  Antonius,  lastly  for  Caesar  the  son  ;  fidelity  va- 
ries, as  does  the  watchword.  Nevertheless  this  conduct  is 
not  to  be  denied  the  merit  of  consistency  and  firmness. 
The  factions  which  rent  the  ruling  burgess-body,  whether 
republic  or  monarchy,  whether  Caesar  or  Antonius,  in  re- 
ality nowise  concerned  the  dependent  provinces,  especially 
those  of  the  Greek  East.  The  demoralisation  which  is 
combined  with  all  revolutionary  change  of  government — 
the  degrading  confusion  between  internal  fidelity  and  ex- 
ternal obedience — was  brought  in  this  case  most  glaringly 
to  light  ;  but  the  fulfilment  of  duty,  such  as  the  Eoman 
commonwealth  claimed  from  its  subjects,  had  been  satis- 
fied by  king  Herod  to  an  extent  of  which  nobler  and 
greater  natures  would  certainly  not  have  been  capable. 
In  presence  of  the  Parthians  he  constantly,  even  in  criti- 
cal circumstances,  held  firmly  to  the  protectors  whom  he 
had  once  chosen. 

From  the  standpoint  of  internal  Jewish  politics  the 

government  of  Herod  was  the  setting  aside  of 
to  the'jews^'^    the  theocracy,  and  in  so  far  a  continuance  of, 

and  in  fact  an  advance  upon,  the  government 
of  the  Maccabees,  as  the  separation  of  the  political  and  the 
ecclesiastical  government  was  carried  out  with  the  utmost 
precision  in  the  contrast  between  the  all-powerful  king  of 
foreign  birth  and  the  powerless  high-priest  often  and  ar- 
bitrarily changed.    No  doubt  the  royal  position  was  sooner 


196 


Judaea  and  the  Jews.  [Book  VIII. 


pardoned  in  the  Jewish  high-priest  than  in  a  man  who  was 
a  foreigner  and  incapable  of  priestly  consecration  ;  and,  if 
the  Hasmonaeans  represented  outwardly  the  independence 
of  Judaism,  the  Idumaean  held  his  royal  power  over  the 
Jews  in  fee  from  the  lord-paramount.  The  reaction  of 
this  insoluble  conflict  on  a  deeply-impassioned  nature  con- 
fronts us  in  the  whole  life-career  of  the  man,  who  causes 
much  suffering,  but  has  felt  perhaps  not  less.  At  all  events 
the  energy,  the  constancy,  the  yielding  to  the  inevitable, 
the  military  and  poHtical  dexterity,  where  there  was  room 
for  it,  secure  for  the  king  of  the  Jews  a  certain  place  in 
the  panorama  of  a  remarkable  epoch. 

To  describe  in  detail  the  government  of  Herod  for  al- 
most forty  years — he  died  in  the  year  750 — as 
Herod's  charac-  the  accounts  of  it  preserved  at  great  length 
ter  and  aims,     ^j^Q^  j^q^  ^j^g  ^^sk  of  the  historian 

of  Rome.  There  is  probably  no  royal  house  of  any  age  in 
which  bloody  feuds  raged  in  an  equal  degree  between  par- 
ents and  children,  between  husbands  and  wives,  and  be- 
tween brothers  and  sisters ;  the  emperor  Augustus  and 
his  governors  in  Syria  turned  away  with  horror  from  the 
share  in  the  work  of  murder  which  was  suggested  to 
them  ;  not  the  least  revolting  trait  in  this  picture  of  hor- 
rors is  the  utter  want  of  object  in  most  of  the  executions, 
ordained  as  a  rule  upon  groundless  suspicion,  and  the  de- 
spairing remorse  of  the  perpetrator,  which  constantly  fol- 
lowed. Vigorously  and  intelligently  as  the  king  took  care 
of  the  interest  of  his  country,  so  far  as  he  could  and  might, 
and  energetically  as,  not  merely  in  Palestine  but  through- 
out the  empire,  he  befriended  the  Jews  with  his  treasures 
and  with  his  no  small  influence — for  the  decision  of  Agrippa 
favourable  to  the  Jews  in  the  great  imperial  affair  of  Asia 
Minor  (p.  186)  they  were  substantially  indebted  to  him — 
he  found  love  and  fidelity  in  Idumaea  perhaps  and  Sa- 
maria, but  not  among  the  people  of  Israel ;  here  he  was, 
and  continued  to  be,  not  so  much  the  man  laden  with  the 
guilt  of  blood  in  many  forms,  as  above  all  the  foreigner. 
As  it  was  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  that  domestic  war, 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


197 


that  his  wife  of  the  Hasmonaean  family,  the  fair  Mariamne, 
and  their  children  were  regarded  and  dreaded  by  him 
more  as  Jews  than  as  his  own,  he  himself  gave  expression 
to  the  feeling  that  he  was  as  much  drawn  towards  the 
Greeks  as  repelled  by  the  Jews.  It  is  significant  that  he 
had  the  sons,  for  whom  in  the  first  instance  he  destined 
the  succession,  brought  up  in  Rome.  While  out  of  his 
inexhaustible  riches  he  loaded  the  Greek  cities  of  other 
lands  with  gifts  and  embellished  them  with  temples,  he 
built  for  the  Jews  no  doubt  also,  but  not  in  the  Jewish 
sense.  The  buildings  of  the  circus  and  theatre  in  Jeru- 
salem itself,  as  well  as  the  temples  for  the  imperial  wor- 
ship in  the  Jewish  towns,  were  regarded  by  the  pious  Is- 
raelite as  a  summons  to  blaspheme  God.  His  conversion 
of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem  into  a  magnificent  building  was 
done  half  against  the  will  of  the  devout  ;  much  as  they 
admired  the  building,  his  introduction  into  it  of  a  golden 
eagle  was  taken  more  amiss  than  all  the  sentences  of 
death  ordained  by  him,  and  led  to  a  popular  insurrection, 
to  which  the  eagle  fell  a  sacrifice,  and  thereupon  doubt- 
less the  devotees  as  well,  who  tore  it  down. 

Herod  knew  the  land  sufficiently  not  to  let  matters  come 

to  extremities  ;  if  it  had  been  possible  to  Hel- 
Energy  of  his    ^^m.^^  it,  the  will  to  that  effect  would  not  have 

been  wanting  on  his  part.  In  energy  the 
Idumaean  was  not  inferior  to  the  best  Hasmonaeans.  The 
construction  of  the  great  harbour  at  Strato's  Tower,  or  as 
the  town  entirely  rebuilt  by  Herod  was  thenceforth  called, 
Caesarea,  first  gave  to  a  coast  poor  in  harbours  what  it 
needed,  and  throughout  the  whole  period  of  the  empire 
the  town  remained  a  chief  emporium  of  southern  Syria. 
What  the  government  was  able  to  furnish  in  other  respects 
— development  of  natural  resources,  intervention  in  case 
of  famine  and  other  calamities,  above  all  things  internal 
and  external  security — was  furnished  by  Herod.  The 
evil  of  brigandage  was  done  away,  and  the  defence — so 
uncommonly  difficult  in  these  regions — of  the  frontier 
against  the  roving  tribes  of  the  desert  was  carried  out 


198 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


with  sternness  and  consistency.  Thereby  the  Koman 
government  was  induced  to  place  under  him  still  fur- 
ther regions,  Itaurea,  Trachonitis,  Auranitis,  Batanaea. 
Thenceforth  his  dominion  extended,  as  we  have  already 
mentioned  (p.  160),  compactly  over  the  region  beyond  the 
Jordan  as  far  as  towards  Damascus  and  to  the  Hermon 
mountains ;  so  far  as  we  can  discern,  after  those  further 
assignments  there  was  in  the  whole  domain  which  we  have 
indicated  no  longer  any  free  city  or  any  rule  independent 
of  Herod.  The  defence  of  the  frontier  itself  fell  more  on 
the  Arabian  king  than  on  the  king  of  the  Jews  ;  but,  so 
far  as  it  devolved  on  him,  the  series  of  well-provided  fron- 
tier-forts brought  about  here  a  general  peace,  such  as  had 
not  hitherto  been  known  in  those  regions.  We  can  un- 
derstand how  Agrippa,  after  inspecting  the  maritime  and 
military  structures  of  Herod,  should  have  discerned  in  him 
an  associate  striving  in  a  like  spirit  towards  the  great  work 
of  organising  the  empire,  and  should  have  treated  him  in 
this  sense. 

His  kingdom  had  no  lasting  existence.  Herod  himself 
apportioned  it  in  his  testament  among  his 
HeroTandthe  three  SOUS,  and  Augustus  confirmed  the  ar- 
kingdom°*^^^  raugemcut  in  the  main,  only  placing  the  im- 
portant port  of  Gaza  and  the  Greek  towns  be- 
yond the  Jordan  immediately  under  the  governor  of  Syria. 
The  northern  portions  of  the  kingdom  were  separated 
from  the  mainland ;  the  territory  last  acquired  by  Herod  to 
the  south  of  Damascus,  Batanaea  with  the  districts  belong- 
ing to  it,  was  obtained  by  Philip  ;  Galilee  and  Peraea,  that 
is,  the  transjordanic  domain,  so  far  as  it  was  not  Greek,  by 
Herod  Antipas — both  as  tetrarchs  ;  these  two  petty  prin- 
cipalities continued,  at  first  as  separate,  then  as  united 
under  Herod  "  the  Great's  "  great-grandson  Agrippa  H., 
with  slight  interruptions  to  subsist  down  to  the  time  of 
Trajan.  We  have  already  mentioned  their  government 
when  describing  eastern  Syria  and  Arabia  (p.  160  f.).  Here 
it  may  only  be  added  that  these  Herodians  continued  to 
rule,  if  not  with  the  energy,  at  least  in  the  sense  and  spirit 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


199 


of  the  founder  of  the  dynasty.  The  towns  established  by 
them — Caesarea,  the  ancient  Paneas,  in  the  northern  ter- 
ritory, and  Tiberias  in  Gahlee — had  a  Hellenic  organisa- 
tion quite  after  the  manner  of  Herod  ;  characteristic  is  the 
proscrij)tion,  which  the  Jewish  Rabbis  on  account  of  a 
tomb  found  at  the  laying  out  of  Tiberias  decreed  over  the 
unclean  city. 

The  main  country,  Judaea,  along  with  Samaria  on  the 
north  and  Idumaea  on  the  south,  was  destined 
irchefauf  Ai^chclaus  by  his  father's  will.    But  this 

succession  was  not  accordant  with  the  wishes 
of  the  nation.  The  orthodox,  that  is,  the  Pharisees,  ruled 
with  vu'tual  exclusiveness  the  mass  of  the  people  ;  and, 
if  hitherto  the  fear  of  the  Lord  had  been  in  some  measure 
kept  down  by  the  fear  of  the  unscrupulously  energetic 
king,  the  mind  of  the  great  majority  of  the  Jews  was  set 
upon  re-establishing  under  the  protectorate  of  Eome  the 
pui'e  and  godly  sacerdotal  government,  as  it  had  once  been 
set  up  by  the  Persian  authorities.  Immediately  after  the 
death  of  the  old  king  the  masses  in  Jerusalem  had  congre- 
gated to  demand  the  setting  aside  of  the  high-priest  nomi- 
nated by  Herod,  and  the  ejection  of  the  unbelievers  from 
the  holy  city,  where  the  Passover  was  just  to  be  cele- 
brated ;  Archelaus  had  been  under  the  necessity  of  begin- 
ning his  government  by  charging  into  these  masses  ;  a 
number  of  dead  were  counted,  and  the  observance  of  the 
festival  was  suspended.  The  Roman  governor  of  Syria — 
the  same  Varus,  whose  folly  soon  afterwards  cost  the  Ro- 
mans Germany — on  whom  it  primarily  devolved  to  main- 
tain order  in  the  land  during  the  interregnum,  had  allowed 
these  mutinous  bands  in  Jerusalem  to  send  to  Rome, 
where  the  occupation  of  the  Jewish  throne  was  just  being- 
discussed,  a  deputation  of  fifty  persons  to  request  the  abo- 
lition of  the  monarchy  ;  and,  when  Augustus  gave  audi- 
ence to  it,  eight  thousand  Jews  of  the  capital  escorted  it 
to  the  temple  of  Apollo.  The  fanatical  Jews  at  home 
meanwhile  continued  to  help  themselves  ;  the  Roman  gar- 
rison, which  was  stationed  in  the  temple,  was  assailed  with 


200 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


violence,  and  pious  bands  of  brigands  filled  the  land ; 
Varus  had  to  call  out  the  legions  and  to  restore  quiet  with 
the  sword.  It  was  a  warning  for  the  suzerain,  a  supple- 
mentary justification  of  king  Herod's  violent  but  effective 
governnaent.  But  Augustus,  with  all  the  weakness  which 
he  so  often  showed,  particularly  in  later  years,  while  dis- 
missing, no  doubt,  the  representatives  of  those  fanatical 
masses  and  their  request,  yet  executed  in  the  main  the 
testament  of  Herod,  and  gave  over  the  rule  in  Jerusalem 
to  Archelaus  shorn  of  the  kingly  title,  which  Augustus 
preferred  for  a  time  not  to  concede  to  the  untried  young 
man  ;  shorn,  moreover,  of  the  northern  territories,  and  re- 
duced also  in  military  status  by  the  taking  away  of  the 
defence  of  the  frontier.  The  circumstance  that  at  the  in- 
stigation of  Augustus  the  taxes  raised  to  a  high  pitch 
under  Herod  were  lowered,  could  but  little  better  the  po- 
sition of  the  tetrarch.  The  personal  incapacity  and  worth- 
lessness  of  Archelaus  were  hardly  needed,  in  addition,  to 
make  him  impossible  ;  a  few  years  later  (6  a.d.)  Augustus 

saw  himself  compelled  to  depose  him.  Now 
J^ovTnce.^''™''''  he  did  at  length  the  will  of  those  mutineers  ; 

the  monarchy  was  abolished,  and  while  on  the 
one  hand  the  land  was  taken  into  direct  Roman  adminis- 
tration, on  the  other  hand,  so  far  as  an  internal  govern- 
ment was  allowed  by  the  side  of  this,  it  was  given  over  to 
the  senate  of  Jerusalem.  This  procedure  may  certainly 
have  been  determined  in  part  by  assurances  given  earlier 
by  Augustus  to  Herod  as  regards  the  succession,  in  part 
by  the  more  and  more  apparent,  and  in  general  doubt- 
less justifiable,  disinclination  of  the  imperial  government 
to  larger  client-states  possessing  some  measure  of  inde- 
pendent self-movement.  What  took  place  shortly  be- 
fore or  soon  after  in  Galatia,  in  Cappadocia,  in  Mauretania, 
explains  why  in  Palestine  also  the  kingdom  of  Herod 
hardly  survived  himself.  But,  as  the  immediate  govern- 
ment was  organised  in  Palestine,  it  was  even  administra- 
tively a  bad  retrograde  step  as  compared  with  the  Hero- 
dian  ;  and  above  all  the  circumstances  here  were  so 


Chap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  201 


peculiar  and  so  difficult,  that  the  immediate  contact  be- 
tween the  governing  Komans  and  the  governed  Jews — 
which  certainl}^  had  been  obstinately  striven  for  by  the 
priestly  party  itself  and  ultimately  obtained — redounded 
to  the  benefit  neither  of  the  one  nor  of  the  other. 

Judaea  thus  became  in  the  year  6  a.d.  a  Roman  prov- 
ince of  the  second  rank/  and,  apart  from  the 
SnriTion.''''    ephemeral  restoration   of  the   kingdom  of 
Jerusalem  under  Claudius  in  the  years  41-44, 
thenceforth  remained  a  Roman  province.    Instead  of  the 

'  The  statement  of  Josephus  tliat  Judaea  was  attached  to  the  prov- 
ince of  Syria  and  placed  under  its  governor  {Arch.  xvii.  Jin.  :  tov  5e 
'ApxeActou  x^pas  viroreXovs  •7rpo(TvejX7)6el<Tr]s  rrj  xviii.  1,  1:  els 

T7]v  "lovSalcov  Trpo(Tdi]Kriv  ttjs  'S.vpias  y€voix4vT]v'^  c.  4,  6)  appears  to  be 
incorrect  ;  on  the  contrary,  Judaea  probably  formed  thenceforth  a 
procuratorial  province  of  itself.  An  exact  distinction  between  the 
de  lure  and  de  facto  interference  of  the  Syrian  governor  may  not  be 
expected  in  the  case  of  Joseph  us.  The  fact  that  he  organised  the 
new  province  and  conducted  the  first  census  does  not  decide  the 
question  what  arrangement  was  assigned  to  it.  Where  the  Jews 
complain  of  their  procurator  to  the  governor  of  Syria  and  the  latter 
interferes  against  him,  the  procurator  is  certainly  dependent  on  the 
legate ;  but,  when  L.  Vitellius  did  this  (Josephus,  Arch,  xviii.  4,  3), 
his  power  extended  in  quite  an  extraordinary  way  over  the  prov- 
ince (Tacitus,  Ann.  vi.  32  ;  StaatsrecM,  ii.  822),  and  in  the  other 
case  the  words  of  Tacitus,  Ann.  xii.  54 :  quia  Claudius  ius  statu- 
endi  etiam  de  procuratoribus  dederat^  show  that  the  governor  of  Syria 
could  not  have  pronounced  such  a  judgment  in  virtue  of  his  gene- 
ral jurisdiction.  Both  the  ius  gladii  of  these  procurators  (Josephus, 
Bell.  Jud.li.  8,  1:  ^tte^pt  row  KreiVeiV  AojSwj/ TraparoCKaicrapos  e'loutrtar, 
ArcJi.  xviii.  1,1;  r>yif](r6ixevos  ^lovZalcov  r-p  iir\  iracriv  i^ovcrla)  and  their 
whole  demeanour  show  that  they  did  not  belong  to  those  who, 
placed  under  an  imperial  legate,  attended  only  to  financial  affairs, 
but  rather,  like  the  procurators  of  Noricum  and  Raetia,  formed  the 
supreme  authority  for  the  administration  of  law  and  the  command 
of  the  army.  Thus  the  legates  of  Syria  had  there  only  the  position 
which  those  of  Pannonia  had  in  Noricum  and  the  upper  German 
legate  in  Raetia.  This  corresponds  also  to  the  general  develop- 
ment of  matters  ;  all  the  larger  kingdoms  were  on  their  annexation 
not  attached  to  the  neighbouring  large  governorships,  whose  pleni- 
tude of  power  it  was  not  the  tendency  of  this  epoch  to  enlarge,  but 
were  made  into  independent  governorships,  mostly  at  first  equestrian. 


202  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  [Book  VIII. 


previous  native  princes  holding  office  for  life  and,  under 
reservation  of  their  being  confirmed  by  the  Koman  gov- 
ernment, hereditary,  came  an  official  of  the  equestrian 
order,  nominated  and  liable  to  recall  by  the  emperor. 
The  port  of  Caesarea  rebuilt  by  Herod  after  a  Hellenic 
model  became,  probably  at  once,  the  seat  of  Roman  ad- 
ministration. The  exemption  of  the  land  from  Roman 
garrison,  as  a  matter  of  course  ceased,  but,  as  throughout 
in  provinces  of  the  second  rank,  the  Roman  military  force 
consisted  only  of  a  moderate  number  of  cavalry  and  in- 
fantry divisions  of  the  inferior  class ;  subsequently  one 
ala  and  five  cohorts — about  3000  men — were  stationed 
there.  These  troops  were  perhaps  taken  over  from  the 
earlier  government,  at  least  in  great  part  formed  in  the 
country  itself,  mostly,  however,  from  Samaritans  and  Sy- 
rian Greeks.'  The  province  did  not  obtain  a  legionary 
garrison,  and  even  in  the  territories  adjoining  Judaea 
there  was  stationed  at  the  most  one  of  the  four  Syrian 
legions.  To  Jerusalem  there  came  a  standing  Roman 
commandant,  who  took  up  his  abode  in  the  royal  castle, 
with  a  weak  standing  garrison  ;  only  during  the  time  of 
the  Passover,  when  the  whole  land  and  countless  stran- 
gers flocked  to  the  temple,  a  stronger  division  of  Roman 
soldiers  was  stationed  in  a  colonnade  belonging  to  the 
temple.  That  on  the  erection  of  the  province  the  obliga- 
tion of  tribute  towards  Rome  set  in,  follows  from  the  very 
circumstance  that  the  costs  of  defending  the  land  were 
thereby  transferred  to  the  imperial  government.  After  the 
latter  had  suggested  a  reduction  of  the  payments  at  the 
installation  of  Archelaus,  it  is  far  from  probable  that  on 
the  annexation  of  the  country  it  contemplated  an  imme- 
diate raising  of  them  ;  but  doubtless,  as  in  every  newly- 

'  According  to  Josephus  {Arch.  xx.  8,  7,  more  exact  than  Bell. 
Jud.  ii.  13,  7)  tlie  greatest  part  of  the  Koman  troops  in  Palestine 
consisted  of  Caesareans  and  Sebastanes.  The  ala  Sebastenorum 
fought  in  the  Jewish  war  under  Vespasian  (Josephus,  Bell.  Jud.  ii. 
12,  5).  Comp.  Epli.  epigr.  v.  194.  There  are  no  alae  and  coliortes 
ludaeorum. 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


203 


acquired  territory,  steps  were  taken  for  a  revision  of  the 
previous  land-register. ' 

For  the  native  authorities  in  Judaea  as  everywhere  the 

urban  communities  were,  as  far  as  possible, 
aiithOTiS.      taken  as  a  basis.    Samaria,  or  as  the  town  was 

now  called,  Sebaste,  the  newly  laid  out  Cae- 
sarea,  and  the  other  urban  communities  contained  in  the 
former  kingdom  of  Archelaus,  were  self-administering, 
under  superintendence  of  the  Roman  authority.  The 
government  also  of  the  capital  with  the  large  territory 
belonging  to  it  was  organised  in  a  similar  way.  Already 
in  the  pre-Roman  period  under  the  Seleucids  there  was 

formed,  as  we  saw  (p.  174),  in  Jerusalem  a 
of^jeSSem™''  couucil  of  the  cldcrs,  the  Synhedrion,  or  as  Ju- 

daised,  the  Sanhedrin.  The  presidency  in  it 
was  held  by  the  high  priest,  whom  each  ruler  of  the  land, 
if  he  was  not  possibly  himself  high  priest,  appointed  for 
the  time.  To  the  college  belonged  the  former  high  priests 
and  esteemed  experts  in  the  law.  This  assembly,  in  which 
the  aristocratic  element  preponderated,  acted  as  the  su- 
preme spiritual  representative  of  the  whole  body  of  Jews, 
and,  so  far  as  this  was  not  to  be  separated  from  it,  also 
as  the  secular  representative  in  particular  of  the  com- 
munity of  Jerusalem.    It  is  only  the  later  Eabbinism  that 

^  The  revenues  of  Herod  amounted,  according  to  Josephus,  Arcli. 
xvii.  11,  4,  to  about  1200  talents,  whereof  about  100  fell  to  Bata- 
naea  with,  the  adjoining  lands,  200  to  Galilee  and  Peraea,  the  rest 
to  the  share  of  Archelaus  ;  in  this  doubtless  the  older  Hebrew  talent 
(of  about  £390)  is  meant,  not,  as  Hultsch  (Metrol.  2,  p.  605)  assumes, 
the  denarial  talent  (of  about  £260),  as  the  revenues  of  the  same  ter- 
ritory under  Claudius  are  estimated  in  the  same  Josephus  {Arcli. 
xix.  8,  2),  at  12,000,000  denarii  (about  £500,000).  The  chief  item 
in  it  was  formed  bj  the  land-tax,  the  amount  of  which  we  do  not 
know  ;  in  the  Syrian  time  it  amounted  at  least  for  a  time  to  the 
third  part  of  corn  and  the  half  of  wine  and  oil  (1  Maccab,  x.  30)  in 
Caesar's  time  for  Joppa  a  fourth  of  the  fruit  (p.  190,  note),  besides 
which  at  that  time  the  temple-tenth  still  existed.  To  this  was  added 
a  number  of  other  taxes  and  customs,  auction-charges,  salt-tax,  road 
and  bridge  moneys,  and  the  like  ;  it  is  to  these  that  the  publicans 
of  the  Gospels  have  reference. 


204 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


lias  by  a  pious  fiction  transformed  the  Synliedrion  of 
Jerusalem  into  a  spiritual  institute  of  Mosaic  appoint- 
ment. It  corresponded  essentially  to  the  council  of  the 
Greek  urban  constitution,  but  certainly  bore,  as  respected 
its  composition  as  well  as  its  sphere  of  working,  a  more 
spiritual  character  than  belonged  to  the  Greek  represen- 
tations of  the  community.  To  this  Synhedrion  and  its 
high  priest,  who  was  now  nominated  by  the  procurator 
as  representative  of  the  imperial  suzerain,  the  Eoman 
government  left  or  committed  that  jurisdiction  which  in 
the  Hellenic  subject  communities  belonged  to  the  urban 
authorities  and  the  common  councils.  With  indifferent 
short-sightedness  it  allowed  to  the  transcendental  Mes- 
sianism  of  the  Pharisees  free  course,  and  to  the  by  no 
means  transcendental  land-consistory — acting  until  the 
Messiah  should  arrive — tolerably  free  sway  in  affairs  of 
faith,  of  manners,  and  of  law,  where  Eoman  interests  were 
not  directly  affected  thereby.  This  applied  in  particular 
to  the  administration  of  justice.  It  is  true  that,  as  far  as 
Koman  burgesses  were  concerned  in  the  matter,  justice 
in  civil  as  in  criminal  affairs  must  have  been  reserved  for 
the  Koman  tribunals  even  already  before  the  annexation 
of  the  land.  But  civil  justice  over  the  Jews  remained 
even  after  that  annexation  chiefly  with  the  local  au- 
thority. Criminal  justice  over  them  was  exercised  by 
the  latter  probably  in  general  concurrently  with  the 
Eoman  procurator  ;  only  sentences  of  death  could  not  be 
executed  by  it  otherwise  than  after  confirmation  by  the 
imperial  magistrate. 

In  the  main  those  arrangements  were  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  the  abolition  of  the  princi- 
provinciai  Polity,  and  when  the  Jews  had  obtained  this 
government.  j^equcst  of  thcirs,  they  in  fact  obtained  those 
arrangements  along  with  it.  Certainly  it  was  the  design 
of  the  government  to  avoid,  as  far  as  possible,  harshness 
and  abruptness  in  carrying  them  out.  Publius  Sulpicius 
Quirinius,  to  whom  as  governor  of  Syria  the  erection  of 
the  new  province  was  entrusted,  was  a  magistrate  of  re- 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


205 


pute,  and  quite  familiar  with  the  affairs  of  the  East,  and 
the  several  reports  confirm  by  what  they  say  or  by  their 
silence  the  fact  that  the  difficulties  of  the  state  of  things 
were  knqwn  and  taken  into  account.  The  local  coining 
of  petty  moneys,  as  formerly  practised  by  the  kings,  now 
took  place  in  the  name  of  the  Koman  ruler  ;  but  on  ac- 
count of  the  Jewish  abhorrence  of  images  the  head  of  the 
emperor  was  not  even  placed  on  the  coins.  Setting  foot 
within  the  interior  of  the  temple  continued  to  be  forbid- 
den in  the  case  of  every  non-Jew  under  penalty  of  death/ 
However  averse  was  the  attitude  of  Augustus  personally 
towards  the  Oriental  worships  (p.  187),  he  did  not  disdain 
here  any  more  than  in  Egypt  to  connect  them  in  their 
home  with  the  imperial  government;  magnificent  pres- 
ents of  Augustus,  of  Livia,  and  of  other  members  of  the 
imperial  house  adorned  the  sanctuary  of  the  Jews,  and 
according  to  appointment  of  the  emperor  the  smoke  of 
the  sacrifice  of  a  bullock  and  two  lambs  rose  daily  there 
to  the  "Supreme  God."  The  Koman  soldiers  were  di- 
rected, when  they  were  on  service  at  Jerusalem,  to  leave 
the  standards  with  the  effigies  of  the  emperor  at  Caesarea, 
and,  when  a  governor  under  Tiberius  omitted  to  do  so, 
the  government  ultimately  answered  the  urgent  entreaties 

*  On  the  marble  screen  {Ipv^aKToi)^  which  marked  off  the  inner 
court  of  the  temple,  were  placed  for  that  reason  tablets  of  warning 
in  the  Latin  and  Greek  language  (Joseplius,  Bell.  Jud.  v.  5,  2 ;  vi. 
2,  4 ;  Arch.  xv.  11,  5).  One  of  the  latter,  which  has  recentlj  been 
found  (Revue  ArcMologique,  xxiii.  1872,  p.  220),  and  is  now  in  the 
public  museum  of  Constantinople,  is  to  this  effect :  ^-^jfl'  eVa  aKkoyivrj 
eiffiropeveaOaL  ivThs  rod  Trepl  Uphv  rpvcpaKroi^  Koi  TrepijSf^Aou.  ts  5'av 
Arifdrj,  eavTw  curios  tarai  Zia  -rh  e^aKoKovQ^lv  Qavarov.  The  iota  in  the 
dative  is  present,  and  the  writing  good  and  suitable  for  the  early 
imperial  period.  These  tablets  were  hardly  set  up  by  the  Jewish 
kings,  who  would  scarcely  have  added  a  Latin  text,  and  had  no 
cause  to  threaten  the  penalty  of  death  with  this  singular  anonymity. 
If  they  were  set  up  by  the  Roman  government,  both  are  explained  ; 
Titus  also  says  (in  Josephus  Bell.  Jud.  vi.  2,  4),  in  an  appeal  to  the 
Jews  :  Qvx  ^/we??  rovs  virepfidvras  vijuv  avaipelv  iirerpi^^apL^v^  kolu  'Pu^fxalSs 
ris  ^  ; — If  the  tablet  really  bears  traces  of  axe-cuts,  these  came  from 
the  soldiers  of  Titus. 


206 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


of  the  pious  and  left  matters  on  the  old  footing.  Indeed, 
when  the  Eoman  troops  were  to  march  through  Jerusalem 
on  an  expedition  against  the  Arabians,  they  obtained  an- 
other route  for  the  march  in  consequence  of  the  scruples 
entertained  by  the  priests  against  the  images  on  the  stand- 
ards. When  that  same  governor  dedicated  to  the  em- 
peror at  the  royal  castle  in  Jerusalem  shields  without 
imagery,  and  the  pious  took  offence  at  it,  Tiberius  com- 
manded the  same  to  be  taken  away,  and  to  be  hung  up  in 
the  temple  of  Augustus  at  Caesarea.  The  festival  dress  of 
the  high  priest,  which  was  kept  in  Roman  custody  at  the 
castle  and  hence  had  to  be  purified  from  such  profanation 
for  seven  days  before  it  was  put  on,  was  delivered  up  to 
the  faithful  upon  their  complaint ;  and  the  commandant  of 
the  castle  was  directed  to  give  himself  no  further  concern 
about  it.  Certainly  it  could  not  be  asked  of  the  multi- 
tude that  it  should  feel  the  consequences  of  the  incorpo- 
ration less  heavily,  because  it  had  itself  brought  them 
about.  Nor  is  it  to  be  maintained  that  the  annexation  of 
the  land  passed  off  without  oppression  for  the  inhabitants, 
and  that  they  had  no  ground  to  complain  ;  such  arrange- 
ments have  never  been  carried  into  effect  without  diffi- 
culties and  disturbances  of  the  peace.  The  number,  more- 
over, of  unrighteous  and  violent  deeds  perpetrated  by 
individual  governors  must  not  have  been  smaller  in  Judaea 
than  elsewhere.  In  the  very  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Tiberius  the  Jews,  like  the  Syrians,  complained  of  the 
pressure  of  the  taxes ;  especially  the  prolonged  adminis- 
tration of  Pontius  Pilatus  is  charged  with  all  the  usual 
official  crimes  by  a  not  unfair  observer.  But  Tiberius,  as 
the  same  Jew  says,  had  during  the  twenty-three  years  of 
his  reign  maintained  the  time-hallowed  holy  customs,  and 
in  no  part  set  them  aside  or  violated  them.  This  is  the 
more  to  be  recognised,  seeing  that  the  same  emperor  in 
the  West  interfered  against  the  Jews  more  emphatically 
than  any  other  (p.  187),  and  thus  the  long-suffering  and 
caution  shown  by  him  in  Judaea  cannot  be  traced  back  to 
personal  favour  for  Judaism. 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


207 


In  spite  of  all  this  both  the  opposition  on  principle  to 
the  Koman  government  and  the  violent  efforts 
o^PoSZ!"  at  self-help  on  the  part  of  the  faithful  devel- 
oped themselves  even  in  this  time  of  peace. 
The  payment  of  tribute  was  assailed,  not  perchance  merely 
because  it  was  oppressive,  but  as  being  godless.  "Is  it 
allowable,"  asks  the  Kabbi  in  the  Gospel,  "  to  pay  the 
census  to  Caesar  ?  "  The  ironical  answer  which  he  re- 
ceived did  not  at  any  rate  suffice  for  all ;  there  were  saints, 
though  possibly  not  in  great  number,  who  thought  them- 
selves polluted  if  they  touched  a  coin  with  the  emperor's 
image.  This  was  something  new — an  advance  in  the 
theology  of  opposition  ;  the  kings  Seleucus  and  Antiochus 
had  at  least  not  been  circumcised,  and  had  likewise  re- 
ceived tribute  in  silver  pieces  bearing  their  image.  Such 
was  the  theory  ;  the  practical  application  of  it  was  made, 
not  certainly  by  the  high  council  of  Jerusalem,  in  which 
under  the  influence  of  the  imperial  government,  the  more 
pliant  notables  of  the  land  directed  the  vote,  but  by  Judas 
the  Galilean  from  Gamala  on  the  lake  of  Gennesaret,  who, 
as  Gamaliel  subsequently  reminded  this  high  council, 
"stood  up  in  the  days  of  the  census,  and  behind  him  the 
people  rose  in  revolt."  He  spoke  out  what  all  thought, 
that  the  so-called  census  was  bondage,  and  that  it  was  a 
disgrace  for  the  Jew  to  recognise  another  lord  over  him 
than  the  Lord  of  Zebaoth  ;  but  that  He  helped  only  those 
who  helped  themselves.  If  not  many  followed  his  call  to 
arms,  and  he  ended  his  life,  after  a  few  months,  on  the 
scaffold,  the  holy  dead  was  more  dangerous  to  the  unholy 
victors  than  the  living  man.  He  and  his  followers  were 
regarded  by  the  later  Jews  alongside  of  the  Sadducees, 
Pharisees,  and  Essenes,  as  the  fourth  "  School ;  "  at  that 
time  they  were  called  the  Zealots,  afterwards  they  called 
themselves  Sicarii,  "  men  of  the  knife."  Their  teaching 
was  simple  ;  God  alone  is  Lord,  death  indifferent,  freedom 
all  in  all.  This  teaching  remained,  and  the  children  and 
grandchildren  of  Judas  became  the  leaders  of  the  later  in- 
surrections. 


208 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


If  the  Eoman  government  had  under  the  first  two 

regents,  taken  on  the  whole,  skilfully  and 
Gaius  and  the    patiently  sufficed  for  the  task  of  repressing,  as 

far  as  possible,  these  explosive  elements,  the 
next  change  on  the  throne  brought  matters  close  to  the 
catastrophe.  The  change  was  saluted  with  rejoicing,  as  in 
the  whole  empire,  so  specially  by  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem 
and  Alexandria  ;  and,  after  the  unsociable  and  unloved  old 
man,  the  new  youthful  ruler  Gains  was  extravagantly  ex- 
tolled in  both  quarters.  But  speedily  out  of  trifling  occa- 
sions there  was  developed  a  formidable  quarrel.  A  grand- 
son of  the  first  Herod  and  of  the  beautiful  Mariamne, 
named  after  the  protector  and  friend  of  his  grandfather 
Herod  Agrippa,  about  the  most  worthless  and  abandoned 
of  the  numerous  Oriental  princes'  sons,,  living  in  Rome, 
but  nevertheless  or  on  that  very  account  the  favourite  and 
youthful  friend  of  the  new  emperor,  hitherto  known  solely 
by  his  dissoluteness  and  his  debts,  had  obtained  from  his 
protector,  to  whom  he  had  been  the  first  to  convey  the 
news  of  the  death  of  Tiberius,  one  of  the  vacant  Jewish 
petty  principalities  as  a  gift,  and  the  title  of  king  along 

with  it.  This  prince  in  the  year  38,  on  the 
SSandriL^     way  to  his  new  kingdom,  came  to  the  city  of 

Alexandria,  where  he  a  few  months  previously 
had  attempted  as  a  runaway  bill-debtor  to  borrow  among 
the  Jewish  bankers.  When  he  showed  himself  there  in 
public  in  his  regal  dress  with  his  splendidly  equipped 
halberdiers,  this  naturally  stirred  up  the  non-Jewish  in- 
habitants of  the  great  city — fond  as  it  was  of  ridicule  and 
of  scandal — who  bore  anything  but  good  will  to  the  Jews, 
to  a  corresponding  parody  ;  nor  did  the  matter  stop  there. 
It  culminated  in  a  furious  hunting-out  of  the  Jews.  The 
Jewish  houses  which  lay  detached  were  plundered  and 
burnt ;  the  Jewish  ships  lying  in  the  harbour  were  pil- 
laged ;  the  Jews  that  were  met  with  in  the  non-Jewish 
quarters  were  maltreated  and  slain.  But  against  the 
purely  Jewish  quarters  they  could  affect  nothing  by  vio- 
lence.   Then  the  leaders  li^^hted  on  the  whim  of  conse- 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


209 


crating  the  synagogues,  which  were  the  object  of  their 
marked  attentions,  so  far  as  these  still  stood,  collectively 
as  temples  of  the  new  ruler,  and  of  setting  up  statues  of 
him  in  all  of  them  —  in  the  chief  synagogue  a  statue  on 
a  quadriga.  That  the  emperor  Gaius  deemed  himself,  as 
seriously  as  his  confused  mind  could  do  so,  a  real  and 
corporeal  god,  everybody  knew — the  Jews  and  the  gover- 
nor as  well.  The  latter,  Avillius  Flaccus,  an  able  man, 
and,  under  Tiberius,  an  excellent  administrator,  but  now 
hampered  by  the  disfavour  in  which  he  stood  with  the 
new  emperor,  and  expecting  every  moment  recall  and  im- 
peachment, did  not  disdain  to  use  the  opportunity  for  his 
rehabilitation.'  He  not  merely  gave  orders  by  edict  to 
put  no  hindrance  in  the  way  of  setting  up  the  statues  in 
the  synagogues,  but  he  entered  directly  into  the  Jew- 
hunting.  He  ordained  the  abolition  of  the  Sabbath.  He 
declared  further  in  his  edicts  that  these  tolerated  foreign- 
ers had  possessed  themselves  unallowably  of  the  best  part 
of  the  town  ;  they  were  restricted  to  a  single  one  of  the 
five  wards,  and  all  the  other  Jewish  houses  were  aban- 

'  The  special  hatred  of  Gaius  against  the  Jews  (Philo,  Leg.  20) 
was  not  the  cause,  but  the  consequence,  of  the  Alexandrian  Jew- 
hunt.  Since  therefore  the  understanding  of  the  leaders  of  the  Jew- 
hunt  with  the  governor  (Philo.  in  Flacc.  4)  cannot  have  subsisted 
on  the  footing  that  the  Jews  imagined,  because  the  governor  could 
not  reasonably  believe  that  he  would  recommend  himself  to  the 
new  emperor  by  abandoning  the  Jews,  the  question  certainly  arises, 
why  the  leaders  of  those  hostile  to  the  Jews  chose  this  very  moment 
for  the  Jew-hunt,  and  above  all,  why  the  governor,  whose  excel- 
lence Philo  so  emphatically  acknowledges,  allowed  it,  and,  at  least 
in  its  further  course,  took  personal  part  in  it.  Probably  things  oc- 
curred as  they  are  narrated  above  :  hatred  and  envy  towards  the 
Jews  had  long  been  fermenting  in  Alexandria  (Josephus,  Bell.  Jud. 
ii.  18,  9;  Philo.  Leg.  18)  ;  the  abeyance  of  the  old  stern  govern- 
ment, and  the  evident  disfavour  in  which  the  prefect  stood  with 
Gaius,  gave  room  for  the  tumult ;  the  arrival  of  Agrippa  furnished 
the  occasion  ;  the  adroit  conversion  of  the  synagogues  into  temples 
of  Gaius  stamped  the  Jews  as  enemies  of  the  emperor,  and,  after 
this  was  done,  Flaccus  must  certainly  have  seized  on  the  perse- 
cution to  rehabilitate  himself  thereby  with  the  emperor. 
Vol.  II.— 14 


210 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


doned  to  the  rabble,  while  masses  of  the  ejected  inhabi- 
tants lay  without  shelter  on  the  shore.  No  remonstrance 
was  even  listened  to  ;  eight  and  thirty  members  of  the 
council  of  the  elders,  which  then  presided  over  the  Jews 
instead  of  the  Ethnarch,  ^  were  scourged  in  the  open  circus 
before  all  the  people.  Four  hundred  houses  lay  in  ruins  ; 
trade  and  commerce  were  suspended  ;  the  factories  stood 
still.  There  was  no  help  left  except  with  the  emperor. 
Before  him  appeared  the  two  Alexandrian  deputations, 
that  of  the  Jews  led  by  the  formerly  (p.  185)  mentioned 
Philo,  a  scholar  of  Neojudaic  leanings,  and  of  a  heart  more 
gentle  than  brave,  but  who  withal  faithfully  took  the  part 
of  his  people  in  this  distress  ;  that  of  the  enemies  of  the 
Jews,  led  by  Apion,  also  an  Alexandrian  scholar  and  author, 
the  "  world's  clapper"  \cymhalum  mundi\,  the  emperor 
Tiberius  called  him,  full  of  big  words  and  still  bigger 
lies,  of  the  most  assured  omniscience  ^  and  unlimited  faith 

'  When  Strabo  was  in  Egypt  in  the  earlier  Augustan  period  the 
Jews  in  Alexandria  were  under  an  Ethnarch  {Geogr.  xvii.  1,  13,  p. 
798,  and  in  Josephus,  Arch.  xiv.  7,  2).  Thereupon,  when  under 
Augustus  the  Ethnarchos  or  Genarchos,  as  he  was  called,  died,  a 
council  of  the  elders  took  his  place  (Philo.  Leg.  10)  ;  yet  Augustus, 
as  Claudius  states  (Josephus,  Arch.  xix.  5,  2),  "  did  not  prohibit  the 
Jews  from  appointing  an  Ethnarch,"  which  probably  is  meant  to 
signify  that  the  choice  of  a  single  president  was  only  omitted  for 
this  time,  not  abolished  once  for  all.  Under  Gaius  there  were 
evidently  only  elders  of  the  Jewish  body  ;  and  also  under  Vespasian 
these  are  met  with  (Josephus,  Bell,  vii,  10,  1).  An  archon  of  the 
Jews  in  Antiocli  is  named  in  Josephus,  Bell.  vii.  3,  3. 

^  Apion  spoke  and  wrote  on  all  and  sundry  matters,  upon  the 
metals  and  the  Eoman  letters,  on  magic  and  concerning  the  He- 
taerae,  on  the  early  history  of  Egypt  and  the  cookery  receipts  of 
Apicius ;  but  above  all  he  made  his  fortune  by  his  discourses  upon 
Homer,  which  acquired  for  him  honorary  citizenship  in  numerous 
Greek  cities.  He  had  discovered  that  Homer  had  begun  his  Iliad 
with  the  unsuitable  word  firivis  for  the  reason  that  the  first  two  let- 
ters, as  numerals,  exhibit  the  number  of  the  books  of  the  two  epics 
which  he  was  to  write  ;  he  named  the  guest-friend  in  Ithaca,  with 
whom  he  had  made  inquiries  as  to  the  draught-board  of  the  suitors  ; 
indeed  he  affirmed  that  he  had  conjured  up  Homer  himself  from 
the  nether  world  to  question  him  about  his  native  country,  and  that 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


211 


in  himself,  conversant,  if  not  with  men,  at  any  rate  with 
their  worthlessness,  a  celebrated  master  of  discourse  as  of 
the  art  of  misleading,  ready  for  action,  witty,  unabashed, 
and  unconditionally  loyal.  The  result  of  the  discussion 
was  settled  from  the  outset ;  the  emperor  received  the 
deputies  while  he  was  inspecting  the  works  designed  in 
his  gardens,  but  instead  of  giving  a  hearing  to  the  sup- 
pliants, he  put  to  them  sarcastic  questions,  which  the 
enemies  of  the  Jews  in  defiance  of  all  etiquette  accom- 
panied with  loud  laughter,  and,  as  he  was  in  good  humour, 
he  confined  himself  to  expressing  his  regret  that  these 
otherwise  good  people  should  be  so  unhappily  constituted 
as  not  to  be  able  to  understand  his  innate  divine  nature — 
as  to  which  he  was  beyond  doubt  in  earnest.  Apion  thus 
gained  his  case,  and,  wherever  it  pleased  the  adversaries 
of  the  Jews,  the  synagogues  were  changed  into  temples  of 
Gaius. 

But  the  matter  was  not  confined  to  these  dedications 
introduced  by  the  street-youth  of  Alexandria. 
STe^eSpeTorln  In  the  year  39  the  governor  of  Syria,  Publius 
Jerusalem  Pctrouius,  received  orders  from  the  emperor 
to  march  with  his  legions  into  Jerusalem,  and 
to  set  up  in  the  temple  the  statue  of  the  emperor.  The 
governor,  an  honourable  official  of  the  school  of  Tiberius, 
was  alarmed ;  Jews  from  all  the  land,  men  and  women, 
gray-haired  and  children,  flocked  to  him,  first  to  Ptolemais 
in  Syria,  then  to  Tiberias  in  Galilee,  to  entreat  his  medi- 
ation that  the  outrage  might  not  take  place  ;  the  fields 
throughout  the  country  were  not  tilled,  and  the  desperate 
multitudes  declared  that  they  would  rather  suffer  death 
by  the  sword  or  famine  than  be  willing  to  look  on  at  this 
abomination.  In  reality  the  governor  ventured  to  delay 
the  execution  of  the  orders  and  to  make  counter-represen- 
tations, although  he  knew  that  his  head  was  at  stake.  At 
the  same  time  the  king  Agrippa,  lately  mentioned,  went  in 
person  to  Rome  to  procure  from  his  friend  the  recall  of 

Homer  had  come  and  had  told  it  to  him,  hut  had  bound  him  not  to 
"l^etra^  it  to  others. 


212 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


the  orders.  The  emperor  in  fact  desisted  from  his  desire, 
in  consequence,  it  is  said,  of  his  good  humour  when  under 
the  influence  of  wine  being  adroitly  turned  to  account  by 
the  Jewish  prince.  But  at  the  same  time  he  restricted  the 
concession  to  the  single  temple  of  Jerusalem,  and  sent 
nevertheless  to  the  governor  on  account  of  his  disobedi- 
ence a  sentence  of  death,  which  indeed,  accidentally  de- 
layed, was  not  carried  into  execution.  Gains  now  resolved 
to  break  the  resistance  of  the  Jews  ;  the  enjoined  march  of 
the  legions  shows  that  he  had  this  time  weighed  before- 
hand the  consequences  of  his  order.  Since  those  occur- 
rences the  Egyptians,  ready  to  believe  in  his  divinity,  had 
his  full  affection  just  as  the  obstinate  and  simple-minded 
Jews  had  his  corresponding  hatred  ;  reserved  as  he  was  and 
accustomed  to  grant  favours  in  order  afterwards  to  revoke 
them,  the  worst  could  not  but  appear  merely  postponed. 
He  was  on  the  point  of  departing  for  Alexandria  in  order 
there  to  receive  in  person  the  incense  of  his  altars  ;  and  the 
statue,  which  he  thought  of  erecting  to  himself  in  Jerusa- 
lem, was — it  is  said — quietly  in  preparation,  when,  in  Jan- 
uary 41,  the  dagger  of  Chaerea  delivered,  among  other 
things,  the  temple  of  Jehovah  from  the  monster. 

The  short  season  of  suffering  left  behind  it  no  outward 

consequences;  with  the  god  his  altars  fell. 
poSiJn?^       But  yet  the  traces  of  it  remained  on  both 

sides.  The  history,  which  is  here  being  told, 
is  that  of  an  increasing  hatred  between  Jews  and  non- 
Jews,  and  in  it  the  three  years'  persecution  of  the  Jews 
under  Gains  marks  a  section  and  an  advance.  The  hatred 
of  Jews  and  the  Jew-hunts  were  as  old  as  the  Diaspora 
itself;  these  privileged  and  autonomous  Oriental  communi- 
ties within  the  Hellenic  could  not  but  develop  them  as 
necessarily  as  the  marsh  generates  the  malaria.  But  such 
a  Jew-hunt  as  the  Alexandrian  of  the  year  38,  instigated 
by  defective  Hellenism  and  directed  at  once  by  the 
supreme  authority  and  by  the  low  rabble,  the  older 
Greek  and  Eoman  history  has  not  to  show.  The  far 
way  from  the  evil  desire  of  the  individual  to  the  evil 


Chap.  XT.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


213 


deed  of  the  collective  body  was  thus  traversed,  and  it  was 
shown  that  those  so  disposed  had  to  will  and  to  do,  and 
were  under  circumstances  also  able  to  do.  That  this 
revelation  was  felt  also  on  the  Jewish  side,  is  not  to  be 
doubted,  although  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  adduce 
documentary  evidence  in  support  of  it.^  But  a  far  deeper 
impression  than  that  of  the  Jew-hunt  at  Alexandria  was 
graven  on  the  minds  of  the  Jews  by  the  statue  of  the  god 
Gains  in  the  Holy  of  Holies.  The  thing  had  been  done 
once  already ;  a  like  proceeding  of  the  king  of  Syria, 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  had  been  followed  by  the  rising  of 
the  Maccabees  and  the  victorious  restoration  of  the  free 
national  state  (iii.  81).  That  Epiphanes — the  Anti-Messiah 
who  ushers  in  the  Messiah,  as  the  prophet  Daniel  had, 
certainly  after  the  event,  delineated  him — was  thenceforth 
to  every  Jew  the  prototype  of  abomination  ;  it  was  no 
matter  of  indifference,  that  the  same  conception  came  to 
be  with  equal  warrant  attached  to  a  Eoman  emperor,  or 
rather  to  the  image  of  the  Roman  ruler  in  general.  Since 
that  fateful  edict  the  Jews  never  ceased  to  dread  that 
another  emperor  might  issue  a  like  command  ;  and  so  far 
certainly  with  reason,  as  according  to  the  organisation  of 
the  Roman  polity  such  an  enactment  depended  solely  on 

the  momentary  pleasure  of  the  ruler  for  the 
S'jotr''^^^^''  time.    This  Jewish  hatred  of  the  worship  of 

the  emperor  and  of  imperialism  itself,  is  de- 
picted with  glowing  colours  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John,  for 

'  The  writings  of  Philo,  which  bring  before  us  this  whole  catas- 
trophe with  incomparable  reality,  nowhere  strike  this  chord ;  but, 
apart  even  from  the  fact  that  this  rich  and  aged  man  had  in  him 
more  of  the  good  man  than  of  the  good  hater,  it  is  obvious  of  itself 
that  these  consequences  of  the  occurrences  on  the  Jewish  side  were 
not  publicly  set  forth.  What  the  Jews  thought  and  felt  may  not  be 
judged  of  by  what  they  found  it  convenient  to  say,  particularly  in 
their  works  written  in  Greek.  If  the  Book  of  Wisdom  and  the  third 
book  of  Maccabees  are  in  reality  directed  against  the  Alexandrian 
persecution  of  the  Jews  (Hausrath,  Neutestam.  Zeitgesch.  ii.  259  ff.)— 
which  we  may  add  is  anything  but  certain — they  are,  if  possible, 
couched  in  a  still  tamer  tone  than  the  writings  of  Philo. 


214 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


which,  chiefly  on  that  account,  Eome  is  the  harlot  of 
BabyloD  and  the  common  enemy  of  mankind.'  Still  less 
matter  of  indifference  was  the  parallel,  which  naturally  sug- 
gested itself,  of  the  consequences.  Mattathias  of  Modein 
had  not  been  more  than  Judas  the  Galilean  ;  the  insurrec- 
tion of  the  patriots  against  the  Syrian  king  was  almost  as 

'  This  is  perhaps  the  right  way  of  apprehending  the  Jewish  con- 
ceptions, in  which  the  positive  facts  regularly  run  away  into  gen- 
eralities. In  the  accounts  of  the  Anti-Messias  and  of  the  Antichrist 
no  positive  elements  are  found  to  suit  the  emperor  Gains ;  the  view 
that  would  explain  the  name  Armillus,  which  the  Talmud  assigns 
to  the  former,  by  the  circumstance  that  the  emperor  Gains  some- 
times wore  women's  bracelets  {armillae,  Suetonius,  Gai.  52),  cannot 
be  seriously  maintained.  In  the  Apocalypse  of  John — the  classical 
revelation  of  Jewish  self-esteem  and  of  hatred  towards  the  Romans — 
the  picture  of  the  Anti-Messias  is  associated  rather  with  Nero,  who 
did  not  cause  his  image  to  be  set  up  in  the  Holy  of  Holies.  This 
composition  belongs,  as  is  well  known,  to  a  time  and  a  tendency, 
which  still  viewed  Christianity  as  essentially  a  Jewish  sect ;  those 
elected  and  marked  by  the  angel  are  all  Jews,  12,000  from  each  of 
the  twelve  tribes,  and  have  precedence  over  the  "great  multitude 
of  other  righteous  ones,"  i.e.  of  proselytes  (ch.  vii.;  comp.  ch.  xii.  1). 
It  was  written,  demonstrably,  after  Nero's  fall,  and  when  his  return 
from  the  East  was  expected.  Now  it  is  true  that  a  pseudo-Nero 
appeared  immediately  after  the  death  of  the  real  one,  and  was 
executed  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  year  (Tacitus,  Hist.  ii. 
8,  9) ;  but  it  is  not  of  this  one  that  John  is  thinking,  for  the  very 
exact  account  makes  no  mention,  as  John  does,  of  the  Parthians  in 
the  matter,  and  for  John  there  is  a  considerable  interval  between 
the  fall  of  Nero  and  his  return,  the  latter  even  still  lying  in  the 
future.  His  Nero  is  the  person  who,  under  Vespasian,  found  ad- 
herents in  the  region  of  the  Euphrates,  whom  king  Artabanus 
acknowledged  under  Titus  and  prepared  to  reinstate  in  Rome  by 
military  force,  and  whom  at  length  the  Parthians  surrendered,  after 
prolonged  negotiations,  about  the  year  88,  to  Domitian.  To  these 
events  the  Apocalypse  corresponds  quite  exactly. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  a  writing  of  this  character  no  inference  as 
to  the  state  of  the  siege  at  the  time  can  possibly  be  drawn,  from  the 
circumstance  that,  according  to  xi.  1,  2,  only  the  outer  court,  and 
not  the  Holy  of  Holies  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  was  given 
into  the  power  of  the  heathen  ;  here  everything  in  the  details  is 
imaginary,  and  this  trait  is  certainly  either  invented  at  pleasure  or, 
if  the  view  be  preferred,  possibly  based  on  orders  given  to  the 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


215 


hopeless  as  the  insurrection  against  the  monster  beyond 
the  sea.  Historical  parallels  in  practical  application  are 
dangerous  elements  of  opposition ;  only  too  rapidly  does 
the  structure  of  long  years  of  wise  government  come  to 
be  shaken. 

Roman  soldiers,  who  were  encamped  in  Jerusalem  after  its  destruc- 
tion, not  to  set  foot  in  what  was  formerly  the  Holy  of  Holies.  The 
foundation  of  the  Apocalypse  is  indisputably  the  destruction  of  the 
earthly  Jerusalem,  and  the  prospect  thereby  for  the  first  time  opened 
up  of  its  future  ideal  restoration  ;  in  place  of  the  razing  of  the  city 
which  had  taken  place  there  cannot  possibly  be  put  the  mere  ex- 
pectation of  its  capture.  If,  then,  it  is  said  of  the  seven  heads  of 
the  dragon :  ^acriXeTs  eirrd  elaiv  ot  TreVre  cTrecar,  Ka\  eJs  icrriv,  6  6,\Xos 
ovirco  ^A0ev,  /cat  trav  eXBrj  oKiyov  avrhv  5e?  ixclvai  (xvii.  10),  the  five, 
presumably,  are  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Gains,  Claudius,  Nero,  the 
sixth  Vespasian,  the  seventh  undefined  ;  "the  beast  which  was,  and 
is  not,  and  is  itself  the  eighth,  but  of  the  seven,''  is,  of  course,  Nero. 
The  undefined  seventh  is  incongruous,  like  so  much  in  this  gorgeous, 
but  contradictory  and  often  tangled  imagery  ;  and  it  is  added,  not 
because  the  number  seven  was  employed,  which  was  easily  to  be  got 
at  by  including  Caesar,  but  because  the  writer  hesitated  to  predicate 
immediately  of  the  reigning  emperor  the  short  government  of  the 
last  ruler  and  his  overthrow  by  the  returning  Nero.  But  one  cannot 
possibly — as  is  done  after  others  by  Renan — by  including  Caesar  in 
the  reckoning,  recognise  in  the  sixth  emperor,  "  who  is,"  Nero,  who 
immediately  afterward  is  designated  as  he  who  "was  and  is  not," 
and  in  the  seventh,  who  "has  not  yet  come  and  will  not  rule  long," 
even  the  aged  Galba,  who,  according  to  Renan's  view,  was  ruling  at 
the  time.  It  is  clear  that  the  latter  does  not  belong  at  all  to  such  a 
series,  any  more  than  Otho  and  Vitellius. 

It  is  more  important,  however,  to  oppose  the  current  conception, 
according  to  which  the  polemic  is  directed  against  the  Neronian 
persecution  of  the  Christians  and  the  siege  or  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  whereas  it  is  pointed  against  the  Roman  provincial 
government  generally,  and  in  particular  against  the  worship  of  the 
emperors  If  of  the  seven  emperors  Nero  alone  is  named  (by  his 
numerical  expression),  this  is  so,  not  because  he  was  the  worst  of 
the  seven,  but  because  the  naming  of  the  reigning  emperor,  while 
prophesying  a  speedy  end  of  his  reign  in  a  published  writing,  had 
its  risk,  and  some  consideration  towards  the  one  "  who  is"  beseems 
even  a  prophet  Nero's  name  was  given  up,  and  besides,  the  legend 
of  his  healing  and  of  his  return  was  in  every  one's  mouth  ;  thereby 
he  has  become  for  the  Apocalypse  the  representative  of  the  Roman 
imperial  rule,  and  the  Antichrist.    The  crime  of  the  monster  of  the 


216 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


The  government  of  Claudius  turned  back  on  both  sides 
into  the  paths  of  Tiberius.    In  Italy  there  was 

Se^jews  repeated,  not  indeed  precisely  the  ejection  of 
the  Jews,  since  there  could  not  but  arise  a 

conviction  that  this  course  was  impracticable,  but  at  any 

sea,  and  of  Ms  image  and  instrument,  the  monster  of  the  land,  is 
not  the  violence  to  the  citj  of  Jerusalem  (xi.  2) — which  appears  not 
as  their  misdeed,  but  rather  as  a  portion  of  the  world-judgment  (in 
which  case  also  consideration  for  the  reigning  emperor  may  have 
been  at  work) — but  the  divine  worship,  which  the  heathen  pay 
to  the  monster  of  the  sea  (xiii.  8 :  irpoarKvvfjaova'ip  avrhv  iroivTes  oi 
KaroiKovvres  eirl  ttjs  yvs),  and  which  the  monster  of  the  land — called 
for  that  reason  also  the  pseudo-prophet — demands  and  compels  for 
that  of  the  sea  (xiii.  12  :  irote?  r^iu  yrjv  Koi  tovs  KaroiKOvvras  €V  avry  'Iva 
■npo(TKVv'i](TOV(TLV  TO  dr)piov  rh  irpwrov,  ou  eOepairevdri  rj  "jrXrjy-^  tov  Bavdrov 
avTov) ;  above  all,  he  is  upbraided  with  the  desire  to  make  an  image 
for  the  former  (xiii.  14:  Xeyusv  rois  KaroiKouaiu  eirl  rrjs  yrjs,  iroiria'ai 
eiKova  TO}  Orjp'i^  ts  e^ei  r^v  TrXrjy^v  rrjs  fiaxalpv^  '^'^^  ^Cvf^^v,  COmp,  xiv. 
9  ;  xvi.  2  ;  xix.  20).  This,  it  is  plain,  is  partly  the  imperial  govern- 
ment beyond  the  sea,  partly  the  lieutenancy  on  the  Asiatic  con- 
tinent, not  of  this  or  that  province  or  even  of  this  or  that  person, 
but  generally  such  representation  of  the  emperor  as  the  provincials 
of  Asia  and  Syria  knew.  If  trade  and  commerce  appear  associated 
with  the  use  of  the  x<^pa7Ma  of  the  monster  of  the  sea  (xiii.  16,  17), 
there  lies  clearly  at  bottom  an  abhorrence  of  the  image  and  legend 
of  the  imperial  money — certainly  transformed  in  a  fanciful  way,  as 
in  fact  Satan  makes  the  image  of  the  emperor  speak.  These  very 
governors  appear  afterwards  (xvii.)  as  the  ten  horns,  which  are 
assigned  to  the  monster  in  its  copy,  and  are  here  called,  quite  cor- 
rectly, the  "ten  kings,  which  have  not  the  royal  dignity,  but  have 
authority  like  kings  ; "  the  number,  which  is  taken  over  from  the 
vision  of  Daniel,  may  not,  it  is  true,  be  taken  too  strictly. 

In  the  sentences  of  death  pronounced  over  the  righteous,  John  is 
thinking  of  the  regular  judicial  procedure  on  account  of  the  refusal 
to  worship  the  emperor's  image,  such  as  the  Letters  of  Pliny  describe 
(xiii.  15 :  iroiiiffp  'Iva  fxroi  iav  fi^  irpocrKvv'ficraxnv  rijv  et/coVa  rod  Orjpiov 
airoKTavOaxTiv^  comp.  vi.  9 ;  xx.  4),  When  stress  is  laid  on  these 
sentences  of  death  being  executed  with  special  frequency  in  Rome 
(xvii.  6 ;  xvii.  24),  what  is  thereby  meant  is  the  execution  of  sen- 
tences wherein  men  were  condemned  to  fight  as  gladiators  or  with 
wild  beasts,  which  often  could  not  take  place  on  the  spot  where 
they  were  pronounced,  and,  as  is  well  known,  took  place  chiefly  in 
Rome  itself  (Modestinus,  Dig.  xlviii.  19,  31).  The  Neronian  execu- 
tions on  account  of  alleged  incendiarism  do  not  formally  belong  to 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


217 


rate  a  prohibition  of  the  exercise  of  their  worship  '  in  com- 
mon, which,  it  is  true,  amounted  nearly  to  the  same  thing 
and  probably  came  as  little  into  execution.  Alongside 
of  this  ediqt  of  intolerance  and  in  an  opposite  sense,  by 
an  ordinance  embracing  the  whole  empire  the  Jews  were 
freed  from  those  public  obligations  which  were  not  com- 
patible with  their  religious  convictions  ;  whereby,  as  re- 
spected service  in  war  particularly,  there  was  doubtless 
conceded  only  what  hitherto  it  had  not  been  possible  to 
compel.  The  exhortation,  expressed  at  the  close  of  this 
edict,  to  the  Jews  to  exercise  now  on  their  part  also  greater 
moderation,  and  to  refrain  from  the  insulting  of  persons 

the  class  of  religious  processes  at  all,  and  it  is  only  prepossession 
that  can  refer  the  martyrs'  blood  shed  in  Rome,  of  which  John 
speaks,  exclusively  or  pre-eminently  to  these  events.  The  current 
conceptions  as  to  the  so-called  persecutions  of  the  Christians  labour 
under  a  defective  apprehension  of  the  rule  of  law  and  the  practice 
of  law  subsisting  in  the  Roman  empire  ;  in  reality  the  persecution 
of  the  Christians  was  a  standing  matter  as  was  that  of  robbers ;  only 
such  regulations  were  put  into  practice  at  times  more  gently  or  even 
negligently,  at  other  times  more  strictly,  and  were  doubtless  on  oc- 
casion specially  enforced  from  high  quarters.  The  "  war  against 
the  saints"  is  only  a  subsequent  interpolation  on  the  part  of  some, 
for  whom  John's  words  did  not  suffice  (xiii.  7).  The  Apocalypse  is 
a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  national  and  religious  hatred  of  the 
Jews  towards  the  Occidental  government ;  but  to  illustrate  with 
these  colours  the  Neronian  tale  of  horrors,  as  Renan  does  in  par- 
ticular, is  to  shift  the  place  of  the  facts  and  to  detract  from  their 
depth  of  significance.  The  Jewish  national  hatred  did  not  wait  for 
the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  to  originate  it,  and  it  made,  as  might  be 
expected,  no  distinction  between  the  good  and  the  bad  Caesar ;  its 
Anti-Messias  is  named  Nero,  doubtless,  but  not  less  Vespasian  or 
Marcus. 

'  The  circumstance  that  Suetonius  ( Glaud.  25)  names  a  certain 
Chrestus  as  instigator  of  the  constant  troubles  in  Rome,  that  had  in 
the  first  instance  called  forth  these  measures  (according  to  him  the 
expulsion  from  Rome  ;  in  contrast  to  Dio,  Ix.  6)  has  been  without 
sufficient  reason  conceived  as  a  misunderstanding  of  the  movement 
called  forth  by  Christ  among  Jews  and  proselytes.  The  Book  of 
Acts  xviii.  2,  speaks  only  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews.  At  any  rate 
it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that,  with  the  attitude  at  that  time  of  the 
Christians  to  Ji^daism,  they  too  fell  under  the  edict. 


218  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  [Book  VIII. 


of  another  faith,  shows  that  there  had  not  been  wanting 
transgressions  also  on  the  Jewish  side.  In  Egypt  as  in 
Palestine  the  religious  arrangements  were,  at  least  on  the 
whole,  re-established  as  they  had  subsisted  before  Gains, 
although  in  Alexandria  the  Jews  hardly  obtained  back  all 
that  they  had  possessed  ;  ^  the  insurrectionary  movements, 
which  had  broken  out,  or  were  on  the  point  of  breaking 
out,  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  thereupon  disappeared 
of  themselves.  In  Palestine  Claudius  even  went  beyond 
the  system  of  Tiberius  and  committed  the 
gnppa.  whole  former  territory  of  Herod  to  a  native 
prince,  that  same  Agrippa  who  accidentally  had  come  to 
be  friendly  with  Claudius  and  useful  to  him  in  the  crises 
of  his  accession.  It  was  certainly  the  design  of  Claudius 
to  resume  the  system  followed  at  the  time  of  Herod  and 
to  obviate  the  dangers  of  the  immediate  contact  between 
the  Romans  and  Jews.  But  Agrippa,  leading  an  easy  life 
and  even  as  a  prince  in  constant  financial  embarrassment, 
good-humoured,  moreover,  and  more  disposed  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  his  subjects  than  with  the  distant  pro- 
tector, gave  offence  in  various  ways  to  the  government, 
for  example,  by  the  strengthening  the  walls  of  Jerusalem, 
which  he  was  forbidden  to  carry  further ;  and  the  towns 
that  adhered  to  the  Romans,  Caesarea  and  Sebaste,  as  well 
as  the  troops  organised  in  the  Roman  fashion,  were  disin- 
clined to  him.  When  he  died  early  and  suddenly  in  the 
year  44,  it  appeared  hazardous  to  entrust  the  position,  im- 
portant in  a  political  as  in  a  military  point  of  view,  to  his 
only  son  of  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  those  who  wielded 
power  in  the  cabinet  were  reluctant  to  let  out  of  their 
hands  the  lucrative  procuratorships.    The  Claudian  gov- 

'  The  Jews  there  at  least  appear  later  to  have  had  only  the  fourth 
of  the  five  wards  of  the  city  in  their  possession  ( Josephus,  Bell.  Jud. 
ii.  18,  8).  Probably,  if  the  400  houses  that  were  razed  had  been 
given  back  again  to  them  in  so  striking  a  manner,  the  Jewish  au- 
thors Josephus  and  Philo,  who  lay  stress  on  all  the  imperial  marks 
of  favour  shown  to  the  Jews,  would  not  have  been  silent  on  the 
subject. 


Chap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  219 


ernment  had  here,  as  elsewhere,  lighted  on  the  right 
course,  but  had  not  the  energy  to  carry  it  out  irrespective 
of  accessory  considerations.  A  Jewish  prince  with  Jewish 
soldiers  might  exercise  the  government  in  Judaea  for  the 
Romans  ;  the  Roman  magistrate  and  the  Roman  soldiers 
offended  probably  still  more  frequently  through  ignorance 
of  Jewish  views  than  through  intentional  action  in  opposi- 
tion to  them,  and  whatever  they  might  undertake  was  on 
their  part  in  the  eyes  of  believers  an  offence,  and  the  most 
indifferent  occurrence  a  religious  outrage.  The  demand 
for  mutual  understanding  and  agreement  was  on  both 
sides  just  as  warranted  of  itself  as  it  was  impossible  of  exe- 
cution. But  above  all  a  conflict  between  the  Jewish  lord 
of  the  land  and  his  subjects  was  a  matter  of  tolerable  in- 
difference for  the  empire  ;  every  conflict  between  the  Ro- 
mans and  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem  widened  the  gulf  which 
yawned  between  the  peoples  of  the  West  and  the  Hebrews 
living  along  with  them  ;  and  the  danger  lay,  not  in  the 
quarrels  of  Palestine,  but  in  the  incompatibility  of  the 
members  of  the  empire  of  different  nationalities  who  were 
now  withal  coupled  together  by  fate. 

Thus  the  ship  was  driving  incessantly  towards  the  whirl- 
pool. In  this  ill-fated  voyage  all  taking  part 
the  insurrection,  lent  their  help — the  Roman  government  and 
its  administrators,  the  Jewish  authorities  and 
the  Jewish  people.  The  former  indeed  continued  to  show 
a  willingness  to  meet  as  far  as  possible  all  claims,  fair  and 
unfair,  of  the  Jews.  When  in  the  year  44  the  procurator 
again  entered  Jerusalem,  the  nomination  of  the  high-priest 
and  the  administration  of  the  temple-treasure,  which  were 
combined  with  the  kingly  office  and  in  so  far  also  with  the 
pro  curator  ship,  were  taken  from  him  and  transferred  to  a 
brother  of  the  deceased  king  Agrippa,  king  Herod  of  Chal- 
cis,  as  well  as,  after  his  death  in  the  year  48,  to  his  succes- 
sor the  younger  Agrippa  already  mentioned.  The  Roman 
chief  magistrate,  on  the  complaint  of  the  Jews  caused  a 
Roman  soldier,  who,  on  occasion  of  orders  to  plunder  a 
Jewish  village,  had  torn  in  pieces  a  roll  of  the  law,  to  be 


220 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


put  to  death.  The  whole  weight  of  Koman  imperial  jus- 
tice fell,  according  to  circumstances,  even  upon  the  higher 
officials ;  when  two  procurators  acting  alongside  of  one 
another  had  taken  part  for  and  against  in  the  quarrel  of 
the  Samaritans  and  the  Galileans,  and  their  soldiers  had 
fought  against  one  another,  the  imperial  governor  of  Syria, 
Ummidius  Quadratus,  was  sent  with  extraordinary  full 
powers  to  Syria  to  punish  and  to  execute  ;  in  reality  one 
of  the  guilty  persons  was  sent  into  banishment,  and  a  Ro- 
man military  tribune  named  Celer  was  publicly  beheaded 
in  Jerusalem  itself.  But  alongside  of  these  examples  of 
severity  stood  others  of  a  weakness  partaking  of  guilt ;  in 
that  same  process  the  second  at  least  as  guilty  procurator 
Antonius  Felix  escaped  punishment,  because  he  was  the 
brother  of  the  powerful  menial  Pallas  and  the  husband  of 
the  sister  of  king  Agrippa.  Still  more  than  with  the  offi- 
cial abuses  of  individual  administrators  must  the  govern- 
ment be  chargeable  with  the  fact  that  it  did  not  strengthen 
the  power  of  the  officials  and  the  number  of  the  troops  in 
a  province  so  situated,  and  continued  to  recruit  the  gar- 
rison almost  exclusively  from  the  province.  Insignificant 
as  the  province  waS,  it  was  a  wretched  stupidity  and  an  ill- 
applied  parsimony  to  treat  it  after  the  traditional  pattern  ; 
the  seasonable  display  of  a  crushing  superiority  of  force 
and  unrelenting  sternness,  a  governor  of  higher  rank,  and 
a  legionary  camp,  would  have  saved  to  the  province  and 
the  empire  great  sacrifices  of  money,  blood,  and  honour. 
But  not  less  at  least  was  the  fault  of  the  Jews.  The 

highpriestly  rule,  so  far  as  it  went — and  the 
Sif  ^Ananias,  government  was  but  too  much  inclined  to 

allow  it  free  scope  in  all  internal  affairs — was, 
even  according  to  the  Jewish  accounts,  at  no  time  con- 
ducted with  so  much  violence  and  worthlessness  as  in  that 
from  the  death  of  Agrippa  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  The 
best-known  and  most  influential  of  these  priest-rulers  was 
Ananias  son  of  Nebedaeus,  the  "whitewashed  wall,"  as 
Paul  called  him,  when  this  spiritual  judge  bade  his  attend- 
ants smite  him  on  the  mouth,  because  he  ventured  to  de- 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


221 


fend  himself  before  the  judgment-seat.  It  was  laid  to  his 
charge  that  he  bribed  the  governor,  and  that  by  a  corre- 
sponding interpretation  of  Scripture  he  alienated  from 
the  lower  clergy  the  tithe-sheaves/  As  one  of  the  chief 
instigators  of  the  war  between  the  Samaritans  and  the 
Galileans,  he  had  stood  before  the  Roman  Judge.  Not 
because  the  reckless  fanatics  preponderated  in  th6  ruling 
circles,  but  because  these  instigators  of  popular  tumults 
and  organisers  of  trials  for  heresy  lacked  the  moral  and 
religious  authority  whereby  the  moderate  men  in  better 
times  had  guided  the  multitude,  and  because  they  mis- 
understood and  misused  the  indulgence  of  the  Roman 
authorities  in  internal  affairs,  they  were  unable  to  mediate 
in  a  peaceful  sense  between  the  foreign  rule  and  the 
nation.  It  was  under  their  very  rule  that  the  Roman 
authorities  were  assailed  with  the  wildest  and  most  irra- 
tional demands,  and  popular  movements  arose  of  grim  ab- 
surdity. Of  such  a  nature  was  that  violent  petition,  which 
demanded  and  obtained  the  blood  of  a  Roman  soldier  on 
account  of  the  tearing  up  of  a  roll  of  the  law.  Another 
time  there  arose  a  popular  tumult,  which  cost  the  lives  of  - 
many  men,  because  a  Roman  soldier  had  exhibited  in  the 
temple  a  part  of  his  body  in  unseemly  nudity.  Even  the 
best  of  kings  could  not  have  absolutely  averted  such  lu- 
nacy ;  but  even  the  most  insignificant  prince  would  not  have 
confronted  the  fanatical  multitude  with  so  little  control  of 
the  helm  as  these  priests. 

The  proper  result  was  the  constant  increase  of  the  new 
Maccabees.  It  has  been  customary  to  put  the 
outbreak  of  the  war  in  the  year  66 ;  with 
equal  and  perhaps  better  warrant  we  might  name  for  it  the 
year  44.  Since  the  death  of  Agrippa  warfare  in  Judaea 
had  never  ceased,  and  alongside  of  the  local  feuds,  which 
Jews  fought  out  with  Jews,  there  went  on  constantly  the 
war  of  the  Roman  troops  against  the  seceders  in  the  moun- 

'  The  question  was,  apparently,  whether  the  gift  of  the  tenth- 
sheaf  belonged  to  Aaron  the  priest  (Numb,  xviii.  28),  to  the  priest 
generally,  or  to  the  high  priest  (Ewald,  Jiid.  Gescli.  vi.^  635). 


222 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


tains,  the  Zealots,  as  the  Jews  named  them,  or  according 
to  Roman  designation,  the  Robbers.  Both  names  were 
appropriate  ;  here  too  alongside  of  the  fanatics  the  decayed 
or  decaying  elements  of  society  played  their  part — at  any 
rate  after  the  victory  one  of  the  first  steps  of  the  Zealots 
was  to  burn  the  bonds  for  debt  that  were  kept  in  the  tem- 
ple. Everyone  of  the  abler  procurators,  onward  from  the 
first  Cuspius  Fadus,  swept  the  land  of  them,  and  still  the 
hydra  appeared  afresh  in  greater  strength.  The  successor 
of  Fadus,  Tiberius  Julius  Alexander,  himself  sprung  from 
a  Jewish  family,  a  nephew  of  the  above-mentioned  Alexan- 
drian scholar  Philo,  caused  two  sons  of  Judas  the  Galilean, 
Jacob  and  Simon,  to  be  crucified  ;  this  was  the  seed  of  the 
new  Mattathias.  In  the  streets  of  the  towns  the  patriots 
preached  aloud  the  war,  and  not  a  few  followed  to  the 
desert ;  these  bands  set  on  fire  the  houses  of  the  peaceful 
and  rational  people  who  refused  to  take  part  with  them.  If 
the  soldiers  seized  bandits  of  this  sort,  they  carried  off  in 
turn  respectable  people  as  hostages  to  the  mountains  ;  and 
very  often  the  authorities  agreed  to  release  the  former  in 
order  to  liberate  the  latter.  At  the  same  time  the  "  men 
of  the  knife  "  began  in  the  capital  their  dismal  trade ;  they 
murdered,  doubtless  also  for  money — as  their  first  victim 
the  priest  Jonathan  is  named,  as  commissioning  them  in 
that  case,  the  Roman  procurator  Felix — but,  if  possible,  at 
the  same  time  as  patriots,  Roman  soldiers  or  countrymen 
of  their  own  friendly  to  the  Romans.  How,  with  such  dis- 
positions, should  wonders  and  signs  have  failed  to  appear, 
and  persons  who,  deceived  or  deceiving,  roused  thereby 
the  fanaticism  of  the  masses  ?  Under  Cuspius  Fadus  the 
miracle-monger  Theudas  led  his  faithful  adherents  to  the 
Jordan,  assuring  them  that  the  waters  would  divide  before 
them  and  swallow  up  the  pursuing  Roman  horsemen,  as 
in  the  times  of  king  Pharaoh.  Under  Felix  another  worker 
of  wonders,  named  from  his  native  country  the  Egyptian, 
promised  that  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  would  collapse  like 
those  of  Jericho  at  the  trumpet  blast  of  Joshua  ;  and  there- 
upon four  thousand  knife-men  followed  him  to  the  Mount 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


223 


of  Olives.  In  the  very  absurdity  lay  the  danger.  The 
great  mass  of  the  Jewish  population  v^ere  small  farmers, 
who  ploughed  their  fields  and  pressed  their  oil  in  the 
sweat  of  their  brow — more  villagers  than  townsmen,  of 
little  culture  and  powerful  faith,  closely  linked  to  the  free 
bands  in  the  mountains,  and  full  of  reverence  for  Jehovah 
and  his  priests  in  Jerusalem  as  well  as  full  of  aversion  to- 
wards the  unclean  strangers.  The  war  there  was  not  a  war 
between  one  power  and  another  for  the  ascendency,  not 
even  properly  a  war  of  the  oppressed  against  the  oppres- 
sors for  the  recovery  of  freedom  ;  it  was  not  daring  states- 
men,' but  fanatical  peasants  that  began  and  waged  it,  and 
paid  for  it  with  their  blood.  It  was  a  further  stage  in  the 
history  of  national  hatred  ;  on  both  sides  continued  living 
together  seemed  impossible,  and  they  encounterd  each 
other  with  the  thought  of  mutual  extirpation. 

'  It  is  nothing  but  an  empty  fancy,  wlien  the  statesman  Josephus, 
in  his  preface  to  his  History  of  the  war,  puts  it  as  if  the  Jews  of 
Palestine  had  reckoned  on  the  one  hand  upon  a  rising  of  the  Eu- 
phrates-lands, on  the  other  hand,  upon  the  troubles  in  Gaul  and  the 
threatening  attitude  of  the  Germans  and  on  the  crises  of  the  year  of 
four  emperors.  The  Jewish  war  had  long  been  in  full  course  when 
Vindex  appeared  against  Nero,  and  the  Druids  really  did  what  is 
here  assigned  to  the  Rabbis  ;  and,  however  great  was  the  importance 
of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  in  the  lands  of  the  Euphrates,  a  Jewish 
expedition  from  that  quarter  against  the  Romans  of  the  East  was 
almost  as  inconceivable  as  from  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor.  Doubtless 
some  free-lances  came  from  thence,  as  e.g.  some  young  princes  of 
the  zealously  Jewish  royal  house  of  Adiabene  (Josephus,  Bell.  Jud. 
ii.  19,  2 ;  vi.  6,  4),  and  suppliant  embassies  went  thither  from  the 
insurgents  {ib.  vi.  6,  2)  ;  but  even  money  hardly  flowed  to  the  Jews 
from  this  quarter  in  any  considerable  amount.  This  statement  is 
characteristic  of  the  author  more  than  of  the  war.  If  it  is  easy  to 
understand  how  the  Jewish  leader  of  insurgents  and  subsequent 
courtier  of  the  Flavians  was  fond  of  comparing  himself  with  the  Par- 
thians  exiled  at  Rome,  it  is  the  less  to  be  excused  that  modern  his- 
torical authorship  should  walk  in  similar  paths,  and  in  endeavour- 
ing to  apprehend  these  events  as  constituent  parts  of  the  history  of 
the  Roman  court  and  city  or  even  of  the  Romano-Parthian  quarrels, 
should  by  this  insipid  introduction  of  so-called  great  policy  obscure 
the  fearful  necessity  of  this  tragic  development. 


224 


Judaea  and  the  -Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


The  movement,  through  which  the  tumults  were  changed 
into  war,  proceeded  from  Caesarea.  In  this 
the  insurrection  urban  community — originally  Greek,  and  then 
in  Caesarea.  remodelled  by  Herod  after  the  pattern  of  the 
colonies  of  Alexander — which  had  developed  into  the  first 
seaport  of  Palestine,  Greeks  and  Jews  dwelt,  equally  entitled 
to  civic  privileges,  without  distinction  of  nation  and  confes- 
sion, the  latter  superior  in  number  and  property.  But  the 
Hellenes,  after  the  model  of  the  Alexandrians,  and  doubt- 
less under  the  immediate  impression  of  the  occurrences  of 
the  year  38,  impugned  the  right  of  citizenship  of  the 
Jewish  members  of  the  community  by  way  of  complaint  to 
the  supreme  authority.  The  minister  of  NerD,'  Burrus 
(f  62),  decided  in  their  favour.  It  was  bad  to  make  citi- 
zenship in  a  town  formed  on  Jewish  soil  and  by  a  Jewish 
government  a  privilege  of  the  Hellenes  ;  but  it  may  not  be 
forgotten  how  the  Jews  behaved  just  at  that  time  towards 
the  Romans,  and  how  naturally  they  suggested  to  the 
Romans  the  conversion  of  the  Roman  capital  and  the 
Roman  head-quarters  of  the  province  into  a  purely  Hel- 
lenic urban  community.  The  decision  led,  as  might  be 
conceived,  to  vehement  street  tumults,  in  which  Hellenic 
scoffing  and  Jewish  arrogance  seem  to  have  almost  bal- 
anced each  other,  particularly  in  the  struggle  for  access 
to  the  synagogue  ;  the  Roman  authorities  interfered,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Jews.  These 
left  the  town,  but  were  compelled  by  the  governor  to  re- 
turn, and  then  all  of  them  were  slain  in  a  street  riot  (6th 
August  66).  This  the  government  had  at  any  rate  not 
commanded,  and  certainly  had  not  wished  ;  powers  were 
unchained  which  they  themselves  were  no  longer  able  to 
control. 

If  here  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  were  the  assailants,  the 

'  Josephus  [Arcli.  xx.  8,  9),  makes  Mm  indeed  secretary  of  Nero 
for  Greek  correspondence,  although  he,  where  he  follows  Roman 
sources  (xx.  8,  2,  designates  him  correctly  as  prefect ;  but  certainly 
the  same  person  is  meant.  lie  is  called  7rat5a7«7Js  with  him  as  with 
Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  2  :  rector  imperatoriae  iuventae. 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews, 


225 


Jews  were  so  in  Jerusalem.  Certainly  their  defenders  in 
the  narrative  of  these  occurrences  assure  us 
insurrection  in  that  the  procurator  of  Palestine  at  the  time, 
Jerusalem.  Gcssius  Florus,  iu  Order  to  avoid  impeachment 
on  account  of  his  maladministration,  v^ished  to  provoke 
an  insurrection  by  the  excessive  measure  of  his  torture  ; 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  governors  of  that  time  con- 
siderably exceeded  the  usual  measure  of  worthlessness  and 
oppression.  But,  if  Florus  in  fact  pursued  such  a  plan,  it 
miscarried.  For  according  to  these  very  reports  the  pru- 
dent and  the  possessors  of  property  among  the  Jews,  and 
with  them  king  Agrippa  II.,  familiar  with  the  government 
of  the  temple,  and  just  at  that  time  present  in  Jerusalem 
— he  had  meanwhile  exchanged  the  rule  of  Chalcis  for  that 
of  Batanaea — lulled  the  masses  so  far,  that  the  riotous 
assemblages  and  the  interference  against  them  kept  within 
the  measure  that  had  been  usual  in  the  country  for  years. 
But  the  advances  made  by  Jewish  theology  were  more 
dangerous  than  the  disorder  of  the  streets  and  the  robber 
patriots  of  the  mountains.  The  earlier  Judaism  had  in  a 
liberal  fashion  opened  the  gates  of  its  faith  to  foreigners  ; 
it  is  true  that  only  those  who  belonged,  in  the  strict  sense, 
to  their  religion  were  admitted  to  the  interior  of  the  Tem- 
ple, but  as  proselytes  of  the  gate  all  were  admitted  without 
ceremony  into  the  outer  courts,  and  even  the  non-Jew  was 
here  allowed  to  pray  on  his  part  and  offer  sacrifices  to  the 
Lord  Jehovah.  Thus,  as  we  have  already  mentioned  (p. 
205),  sacrifice  was  offered  daily  there  for  the  Eoman  em- 
peror on  the  basis  of  an  endowment  of  Augustus.  These 
sacrifices  cf  non-Jews  were  forbidden  by  the 
master  of  the  temple  at  this  time,  Eleazar,  son 
of  the  above-mentioned  high  priest  Ananias,  a  passionate 
young  man  of  rank,  personally  blameless  and  brave  and, 
so  far,  an  entire  contrast  to  his  father,  but  more  dangerous 
through  his  virtues  than  the  latter  was  through  his  vices. 
Vainly  it  was  pointed  out  to  him  that  this  was  as  offensive 
for  the  Romans  as  dangerous  for  the  country,  and  abso- 
lutely at  variance  with  usage  ;  he  resolved  to  abide  by  the 
Vol.  II.— 15 


226 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


TBooK  VIIL 


improvement  of  piety  and  the  exclusion  of  the  sovereign 
of  the  land  from  worship.  Believers  in  Judaism  had  for 
long  been  divided  into  those  who  placed  their  trust  in  the 
Lord  of  Zebaoth  alone  and  endured  the  Roman  rule  till  it 
should  please  Him  to  realise  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on 
earth,  and  the  more  practical  men,  who  had  resolved  to 
establish  the  kingdom  of  heaven  with  their  own  hand  and 
held  themselves  assured  of  the  help  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
in  the  pious  work,  or,  by  their  watchwords,  into  the  Phari- 
sees and  the  Zealots.  The  number  and  the  repute  of  the 
latter  were  constantly  on  the  increase.  An  old  saying  was 
discovered  that  about  this  time  a  man  would  proceed 
from  Judaea  and  gain  the  dominion  of  the  world  ;  people 
believed  this  the  more  readily  because  it  was  so  very 
absurd,  and  the  oracle  contributed  not  a  little  to  render 
the  masses  more  fanatical. 

The  moderate  party  perceived  the  danger,  and  resolved 

to  put  down  the  fanatics  by  force  ;  it  asked 
partSf  ^  Vic-  troops  from  the  Romans  in  Ceasarea  and 
zeaiots*^^       from  king  Agrippa.     From  the  former  no 

support  came  ;  Agrippa  sent  a  number  of 
horsemen.  On  the  other  hand  the  patriots  and  the  knife- 
men  flocked  into  the  city,  among  them  the  wildest  Mana- 
him,  also  one  of  the  sons  of  the  oft-named  Judas  of  Gali- 
lee. They  were  the  stronger,  and  soon  were  masters  in  all 
the  city.  The  handful  of  Roman  soldiers,  which  kept 
garrison  in  the  castle  adjoining  the  temple,  was  quickly 
overpowered  and  put  to  death.  The  neighbouring  king's 
palace,  with  the  strong  towers  belonging  to  it,  where  the 
adherents  of  the  moderate  party,  a  number  of  Romans 
under  the  tribune  Metilius,  and  the  soldiers  of  Agrippa 
were  stationed,  offered  as  little  resistance.  To  the  latter, 
on  their  desire  to  capitulate,  free  departure  was  allowed, 
but  was  refused  to  the  Romans  ;  when  they  at  length  sur- 
rendered in  return  for  assurance  of  life,  they  were  first  dis- 
armed, and  then  put  to  death  with  the  single  exception  of 
the  officer,  who  promised  to  undergo  circumcision  and  so 
was  pardoned  as  a  Jew.    Even  the  leaders  of  the  moder- 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


227 


ates,  including  the  father  and  the  brother  of  Eleazar,  be- 
came the  victims  of  the  popular  rage,  which  was  still  more 
savagely  indignant  at  the  associates  of  the  Romans  than 
at  the  Eomans  themselves.  Eleazar  was  himself  alarmed 
at  his  victory  ;  between  the  two  leaders  of  the  fanat- 
ics, himself  and  Manahim,  a  bloody  hand-to-hand  conflict 
took  place  after  the  victory,  perhaps  on  account  of  the 
broken  capitulation  :  Manahim  was  captured  and  exe- 
cuted. But  the  holy  city  was  free,  and  the  Roman  de- 
tachment stationed  in  Jerusalem  was  annihilated ;  the  new 
Maccabees  had  conquered,  like  the  old. 

Thus,  it  is  alleged  on  the  same  day,  the  6th  August 

66,  the  non-Jews  in  Caesarea  had  massacred 
jJwlshwa?'^' the  Jews,  and  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem  had 

massacred  the  non-Jews ;  and  thereby  was 
given  on  both  sides  the  signal  to  proceed  with  this  pa- 
triotic work  acceptable  to  God.  In  the  neighbouring 
Greek  towns  the  Hellenes  rid  themselves  of  the  resident 
Jews  after  the  model  of  Caesarea.  For  example,  in  Da- 
mascus all  the  Jews  were  in  the  first  instance  shut  up 
in  the  gymnasium,  and,  on  the  news  of  a  misfortune  to 
the  Roman  arms,  were  by  way  of  precaution  all  of  them 
put  to  death.  The  same  or  something  similar  took  place 
in  Ascalon,  in  Scytopolis,  Hippos,  Gadara,  wherever  the 
Hellenes  were  the  stronger.  In  the  territory  of  king 
Agrippa,  inhabited  mainly  by  Syrians,  his  energetic  inter- 
vention saved  the  lives  of  the  Jews  of  Caesarea  Paneas 
and  elsewhere.  In  Syria  Ptolemais,  Tyre,  and  more  or 
less  the  other  Greek  communities  followed  ;  only  the  two 
greatest  and  most  civilised  cities,  Antioch  and  Apamea, 
as  well  as  Sidon,  were  exceptions.  To  this  is  probably 
due  the  fact  that  this  movement  did  not  spread  in  the 
direction  of  Asia  Minor.  In  Egypt  not  merely  did  the 
matter  come  to  a  popular  riot,  which  claimed  numerous 
victims,  but  the  Alexandrian  legions  themselves  had  to 
charge  the  Jews. — In  necessary  reaction  to  these  Jewish 
"  vespers"  the  insurrection  victorious  in  Jerusalem  imme- 
diately seized  all  Judaea  and  organised  itself  everywhere, 


228 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


with  similar  maltreatment  of  minorities,  but  in  other  re- 
spects with  rapidity  and  energy. 

It  was  necessary  to  interfere  as  speedily  as  possible,  and 
to  prevent  the  further  extension  of  the  con- 
Jf^oesSGaUus.  Aagratiou  ;  on  the  first  news  the  Roman  gov- 
ernor of  Syria,  Gains  Cestius  Gallus,  marched 
with  his  troops  against  the  insurgents.  He  brought  up 
about  20,000  Eoman  soldiers  and  13,000  belonging  to 
client-states,  without  including  the  numerous  Syrian  mi- 
litia ;  took  Joppa,  where  the  whole  body  of  citizens  was 
put  to  death  ;  and  already  in  September  stood  before,  and 
in  fact  in,  Jerusalem  itself.  But  he  could  not  breach  the 
strong  walls  of  the  king's  palace  and  of  the  temple,  and  as 
little  made  use  of  the  opportunity  several  times  offered  to 
him  of  getting  possession  of  the  town  through  the  mod- 
erate party.  Whether  the  task  was  insoluble  or  whether 
he  was  not  equal  to  it,  he  soon  gave  up  the  siege,  and 
purchased  even  a  hasty  retreat  by  the  sacrifice  of  his 
baggage  and  of  his  rear-guard.  Thus  Judaea  in  the  first 
instance,  including  Idumaea  and  Galilee,  remained  in,  or 
came  into,  the  hands  of  the  exasperated  Jews ;  the  Sa- 
maritan district  also  was  compelled  to  join.  The  mainly 
Hellenic  coast  towns,  Anthedon  and  Gaza,  were  destroyed, 
Caesarea  and  the  other  Greek  towns  were  retained  with 
difficulty.  If  the  rising  did  not  go  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  Palestine,  that  was  not  the  fault  of  the  government, 
but  was  rather  due  to  the  national  dislike  of  the  Syro- 
Hellenes  towards  the  Jews. 

The  government  in  Rome  took  things  in  earnest,  as 
earnest  they  were.  Instead  of  the  procurator 
ofveSiMi'^^'^  imperial  legate  w^as  sent  to  Palestine,  Titus 
Flavins  Vespasianus,  a  prudent  man  and  an 
experienced  soldier.  He  obtained  for  the  conduct  of  the 
war  two  legions  of  the  West,  which  in  consequence  of  the 
Parthian  war  were  accidentally  still  in  Asia,  and  that  Sy- 
rian legion  which  had.  suffered  least  in  the  unfortunate 
expedition  of  Cestius,  while  the  Syrian  army  under  the 
new  governor.  Gains  Licinius  Mucianus — Gallus  had  sea- 


CnAr.  XI  ] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


229 


sonably  died — by  the  addition  of  another  legion  was  re- 
stored to  the  status  which  it  had  before.'  To  these 
burgess-troops  and  their  auxiharies  were  added  the  pre- 
vious garrison  of  Palestine,  and  lastly  the  forces  of  the 

'  It  is  not  quite  clear  what  were  the  arrangements  for  the  forces 
occupying  Syria  after  the  Parthian  war  was  ended  in  the  year  63. 
At  its  close  there  were  seven  legions  stationed  in  the  East,  the  four 
originally  Syrian,  3d  Gallica,  6th  Ferrata,  10th  Fretensis,  12th  Ful- 
minata,  and  three  brought  up  from  the  West,  the  4th  Scythica  from 
Moesia  (i.  231),  the  oth  Macedonica,  probably  from  the  same  place 
(i.  237  ;  for  which  probably  an  upper  German  legion  was  sent  to 
Moesia  i.  144),  the  IStli  Apollinaris  from  Pannonia  (i.  237).  Since, 
excepting  Syria,  no  Asiatic  province  was  at  that  time  furnished  with 
legions,  and  the  governor  of  Syria  certainly  in  times  of  peace  had 
never  more  than  four  legions,  the  Syrian  army  beyond  doubt  had  at 
that  time  been  brought  back,  or  at  least  ought  to  have  been  brought 
back,  to  this  footing.  The  four  legions  which  accordingly  were  to 
remain  in  Syria  were,  as  this  was  most  natural,  the  four  old  Syrian 
ones  ;  for  the  3d  had  in  the  year  70  just  marched  from  Syria  to 
Moesia  (Suetonius,  Yesp.  6 ;  Tacitus,  Hist.  ii.  74),  and  that  the  6th, 
10th,  12th  belonged  to  the  army  of  Cestius  follows  from  Josephus, 
Bell.  Jvbd.  ii.  18,  9,  c.  19,  7  ;  vii.  1,  3.  Then,  when  the  Jewish  war 
broke  out,  seven  legions  were  again  destined  for  Asia,  and  of  these 
four  for  Syria  (Tacitus,  Hist.  i.  10),  three  for  Palestine ;  the  three 
legions  added  were  just  those  employed  for  the  Parthian  war,  the 
4th,  5th,  15th,  which  perhaps  at  that  time  were  still  in  course  of 
marching  back  to  their  old  quarters.  The  4tli  probably  went  at 
that  time  definitively  to  Syria,  where  it  thenceforth  remained  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Syrian  army  gave  off  the  10th  to  Vespasian, 
presumably  because  this  had  suffered  least  in  the  campaign  of  Ces- 
tius. In  addition  he  received  the  5th  and  the  15th.  The  5th  and 
the  10th  legions  came  from  Alexandria  (Josephus,  Bell.  Jud.  iii.  1, 
3,  c.  4,  2)  ;  but  that  they  were  brought  up  from  Egypt  cannot  well 
be  conceived,  not  merely  because  the  10th  was  one  of  the  Syrian, 
but  especially  because  the  march  by  land  from  Alexandria  on  the 
Nile  to  Ptolemais  through  the  middle  of  the  insurgent  territory  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Jewish  war  could  not  have  been  so  narrated 
by  Josephus.  Far  more  probably  Titus  went  by  ship  from  Achaia 
to  Alexandria  on  the  Gulf  of  Issus,  the  modern  Alexandretta,  and 
brought  the  two  legions  thence  to  Ptolemais.  The  orders  to  march 
may  have  reached  the  15th  somewhere  in  Asia  Minor,  since  Ves- 
pasian, doubtless  in  order  to  take  them  over,  went  to  Syria  by  land 
(Josephus,  Bell.  Jud.  iii.  1,  3).  To  these  three  legions,  with  which 
Vespasian  began  the  war,  there  was  added  under  Titus  a  further 


230 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


four  client-kings  of  the  Commagenians,  the  Hemesenes, 
the  Jews,  and  the  Nabataeans,  together  about  50,000  men, 
including  among  them  15,000  king's  soldiers.'  In  the 
spring  of  the  year  67  this  army  was  brought  together  at 
Ptolemais  and  advanced  into  Palestine.  After  the  insur- 
gents had  been  emphatically  repulsed  by  the  weak  gar- 
rison of  the  town  of  Ascalon,  they  had  not  further' 
attacked  the  cities  which  took  part  with  the  Romans  ; 
the  hopelessness,  which  pervaded  the  whole  movement, 
expressed  itself  in  the  renouncing  at  once  of  all  offensive. 
When  the  Romans  thereupon  passed  over  to  the  aggres- 
sive, the  insurgents  nowhere  confronted  them  in  the  open 
field,  and  in  fact  did  not  even  make  attempts  to  bring  re- 
lief to  the  several  places  assailed.  Certainly  the  cautious 
general  of  the  Romans  did  not  divide  his  troops,  but  kept 
at  least  the  three  legions  together  throughout.  Never- 
one  of  the  Syrian,  the  12tL.  Of  the  four  legions  that  occupied  Je- 
rusalem the  two  previously  Syrian  remained  in  the  East,  the  10th 
in  Judaea,  the  12th  in  Cappadocia,  while  the  5th  returned  to 
Moesia,  and  the  15th  to  Pannonia  (Josephus,  Bell.  Jud.  vii.  1,  8  c. 
5,  3). 

^  To  the  three  legions  there  belonged  five  alae  and  eighteen 
cohorts,  and  the  army  of  Palestine  consisting  of  one  ala  and  five 
cohorts.  These  auxilia  numbered  accordingly  3000  alarians  and 
(since  among  the  twenty-three  cohorts  ten  were  1000  strong,  thirteen 
720,  or  probably  rather  only  420  strong  ;  for  instead  of  the  startling 
ki^aKocriovs  we  expect  rather  rpiaKoarlovs  k^dKot^ra)  16,240  (or,  if  720  is 
retained,  19,360)  cohortales.  To  these  fell  to  be  added  1000  horse- 
men from  each  of  the  four  kings,  and  5000  Arabian  archers,  with 
2000  from  each  of  the  other  three  kings.  This  gives  together — 
reckoning  the  legion  at  6000  men — 52,240  men,  and  so  towards 
60,000,  as  Josephus  {Bell.  Jud.  iii.  4,  2)  says.  But  as  the  divisions 
are  thus  all  calculated  at  the  utmost  normal  strength,  the  effective 
aggregate  number  can  hardly  be  estimated  at  50,000.  These  num- 
bers of  Josephus  appear  in  the  main  trustworthy,  just  as  the  analo- 
gous ones  for  the  army  of  Cestius  (Bell.  Jud.  ii.  18,  9)  ;  whereas  his 
figures,  resting  on  the  census,  are  throughout  measured  after  the 
scale  of  the  smallest  village  in  Galilee  numbering  15,000  inhabi- 
tants (Bell.  Jud.  iii.  3,  2),  and  are  historically  as  useless  as  the  figures 
of  Falstaff,  It  is  but  seldom,  e.g.  at  the  siege  of  Jotapata,  that  we 
recognise  reported  numbers. 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


231 


theless,  as  in  most  of  the  individual  townships  a  number 
— often  probably  but  small — of  the  fanatics  exercised 
terror  over  the  citizens,  the  resistance  was  obstinate,  and 
the  Koman  conduct  of  the  war  neither  brilliant  nor 
rapid. 

Vespasian  employed  the  whole  first  campaign  (67)  in 
bringing  into  his  power  the  fortresses  of  the 
ondl^paigns.  Small  district  of  Galilee  and  the  coast  as  far 
as  Ascalon  ;  but  before  the  little  town  of  Jota- 
pata  the  three  legions  lay  encamped  for  forty-five  days. 
During  the  winter  of  67-8  a  legion  lay  in  Scytopolis,  on  the 
south  border  of  Galilee,  the  two  others  in  Caesarea.  Mean- 
while the  different  factions  in  Jerusalem  fell  upon  one  an- 
other and  were  in  most  vehement  conflict ;  the  good  pa- 
triots, who  were  at  the  same  time  for  ci'vdl  order,  and  the 
still  better  patriots,  who,  partly  in  fanatical  excitement, 
partly  from  delight  in  mob-riot,  wished  to  bring  about  and 
turn  to  account  a  reign  of  terror,  fought  with  each  other 
in  the  streets  of  the  city,  and  were  only  at  one  in  account- 
ing every  attempt  at  reconciliation  with  the  Eomans  a  crime 
worthy  of  death.  The  Roman  general,  on  many  occasions 
summoned  to  take  advantage  of  this  disorder,  adhered  to 
the  course  of  advancing  only  step  by  step.  In  the  second 
year  of  the  war  he  caused  the  Transjordanic  territory  in 
the  first  instance,  particularly  the  important  towns  of  Ga- 
dara  and  Gerasa,  to  be  occupied,  and  then  took  up  his 
position  at  Emmaus  and  Jericho,  whence  he  took  military 
possession  of  Idumaea  in  the  south  and  Samaria  in  the 
north,  so  that  Jerusalem  in  the  summer  of  the  year  68  was 
surrounded  on  all  sides. 

The  siege  was  just  beginning  when  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Nero  arrived.  Thereby  de  hire  the 
th^^wan  mandate  conferred  on  the  legate  became  ex- 
tinct, and  Vespasian,  not  less  cautious  in  a 
political  than  in  a  military  point  of  view,  in  fact  suspended 
his  operations  until  new  orders  as  to  his  attitude.  Be- 
fore these  aiTived  from  Galba,  the  good  season  of  the  year 
was  at  an  end.    When  the  spring  of  69  came,  Galba  was 


232 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


overthrown,  and  the  decision  was  in  suspense  between  the 
emperor  of  the  Roman  body-guard  and  the  emperor  of  the 
army  on  the  Rhine.  It  was  only  after  Vitellius's  victory 
in  June  69  that  Vespasian  resumed  operations  and  occu- 
pied Hebron  ;  but  very  soon  all  the  armies  of  the  East  re- 
nounced their  allegiance  to  the  former  and  proclaimed  the 
previous  legate  of  Judaea  as  emperor.  The  positions  at 
Emmaus  and  Jericho  were  indeed  maintained  in  front  of 
the  Jews  ;  but,  as  the  German  legions  had  denuded  the 
Rhine  to  make  their  general  emperor,  so  the  flower  of  the 
army  went  from  Palestine,  partly  with  the  legate  of  Syria, 
Mucianus,  to  Italy,  partly  with  the  new  emperor  and  his 
son  Titus  to  Syria  and  onward  to  Egypt,  and  it  was  only 
after  the  war  of  the  succession  was  ended,  at  the  close  of 
the  year  69,  and  the  rule  of  Vespasian  was  acknowledged 
throughout  the  empire,  that  the  latter  entrusted  his  son 
with  the  termination  of  the  Jewish  war. 

Thus  the  insurgents  had  entirely  free  sway  in  Jerusalem 

from  the  summer  of  66  till  the  spring  of  70. 
jlSs^if  m!'^'^     What  the  combination  of  religious  and  national 

fanaticism,  the  noble  desire  not  to  survive  the 
downfall  of  their  fatherland,  the  consciousness  of  past 
crimes  and  of  inevitable  punishment,  the  wild  promiscu- 
ous tumult  of  all  noblest  and  all  basest  passions  in  these 
four  years  of  terror  brought  upon  the  nation,  had  its  hor- 
rors intensified  by  the  fact  that  the  foreigners  were  only 
onlookers  in  the  matter,  and  all  the  evil  was  inflicted  di- 
rectly by  Jews  upon  Jews.  The  moderate  patriots  were 
soon  overpowered  by  the  zealots  with  the  help  of  the  levy 
of  the  rude  and  fanatical  inhabitants  of  the  Idumaean  vil- 
lages (end  of  68),  and  their  leaders  were  slain.  The  zealots 
thenceforth  ruled,  and  all  the  bonds  of  civil,  religious,  and 
moral  order  were  dissolved.  Freedom  was  granted  to  the 
slaves,  the  high  priests  were  appointed  by  lot,  the  ritual 
laws  were  trodden  under  foot  and  scoffed  at  by  those  very 
fanatics  whose  stronghold  was  the  temple,  the  captives  in 
the  prisons  were  put  to  death,  and  it  was  forbidden  on 
pain  of  death  to  bury  the  slain.     The  different  leaders 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jeios. 


233 


fought  with  their  separate  bands  against  one  another  : 
John  of  Gischala  with  his  band  brought  up  from  Galilee  ; 
Simon^  son  of  Gioras  from  Gerasa,  the  leader  of  a  band  of 
patriots  formed  in  the  south,  and  at  the  same  time  of  the 
Idumaeans  in  revolt  against  John  ;  Eleazar,  son  of  Simon, 
one  of  the  champions  against  Cestius  Gallus.  The  first 
maintained  himself  in  the  porch  of  the  temple,  the  second 
in  the  city,  the  third  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  ;  and  there 
were  daily  combats  in  the  streets  of  the  city  between  Jews 
and  Jews.  Concord  came  only  through  the  common  enemy; 
when  the  attack  began,  Eleazar's  little  band  placed  itself 
under  the  orders  of  John,  and  although  John  in  the  temple 
and  Simon  in  the  city  continued  to  play  the  part  of  masters, 
they,  while  quarrelling  among  themselves,  fought  shoulder 
to  shoulder  against  the  Komans. 

The  task  of  the  assailants  was  not  an  easy  one.  It  is  true 
that  the  army,  which  had  received  in  place  of 
assSiant?^  the  detachmcnts  sent  to  Italy  a  considerable 
contingent  from  the  Egyptian  and  the  Syrian 
troops,  was  quite  sufficient  for  the  investment ;  and,  in  spite 
of  the  long  interval  which  had  been  granted  to  the  Jews 
to  prepare  for  the  siege,  their  provisions  were  inadequate, 
the  more  especially  as  a  part  of  them  had  been  destroyed 
in  the  street  conflicts,  and,  as  the  siege  began  about  the 
time  of  the  Passover,  numerous  strangers  who  had  come  on 
that  account  to  Jerusalem  were  also  shut  in.  But  though 
the  mass  of  the  population  soon  suffered  distress,  the 
combatant  force  took  what  they  needed  where  they  found 
it,  and,  well  provided  as  they  were,  they  carried  on  the 
struggle  without  reference  to  the  multitudes  that  were 
famishing  and  soon  dying  of  hunger.  The  young  general 
could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  a  mere  blockade  ;  a  siege 
with  four  legions,  brought  to  an  end  in  this  way,  would  yield 
to  him  personally  no  glory,  and  the  new  government  needed 
a  brilliant  feat  of  arms.  The  town,  everywhere  else  de- 
fended by  inaccessible  rocky  slopes,  was  assailable  only  on 
the  north  side  ;  here,  too,  it  was  no  easy  labour  to  reduce 
the  threefold  rampart-wall  erected  without  regard  to  cost 


234 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


from  the  rich  treasures  of  the  temple,  and  further  within 
the  city  to  wrest  the  citadel,  the  temple,  and  the  three 
vast  towers  of  Herod  from  a  strong,  fanatically  inspired, 
and  desperate  garrison.  John  and  Simon  not  merely  reso- 
lutely repelled  the  assaults,  but  often  attacked  with  good 
success  the  troops  working  at  the  trenches,  and  destroyed 
or  burnt  the  besieging  machines. 

But  the  superiority  of  numbers  and  the  art  of  war 

decided  for  the  Eomans.  The  walls  were 
jemSiem.''''*   stormed,  and  thereafter  the  citadel  Antonia  ; 

then,  after  long  resistance,  first  the  porticoes 
of  the  temple  went  on  fire,  and  further  on  the  10th  Ab 
(August)  the  temple  itself,  with  all  the  treasures  accumu- 
lated in  it  for  six  centuries.  Lastly,  after  fighting  in  the 
streets  which  lasted  for  a  month,  on  the  8th  Elul  (Septem- 
ber) the  last  resistance  in  the  town  itself  was  broken,  and 
the  holy  Salem  was  razed.  The  bloody  work  had  lasted 
for  five  months.  The  sword  and  the  arrow,  and  still  more 
famine,  had  claimed  countless  victims  ;  the  Jews  killed 
every  one  so  much  as  suspected  of  deserting,  and  forced 
women  and  children  in  the  city  to  die  of  hunger  ;  the  Eo- 
mans just  as  pitilessly  put  to  the  sword  the  captives  or 
crucified  them.  The  combatants  that  remained,  and  par- 
ticularly the  two  leaders,  were  drawn  forth  singly  from  the 
sewers,  in  which  they  had  taken  refuge.  At  the  Dead 
Sea,  just  where  once  king  David  and  the  Maccabees  in 
their  utmost  distress  had  found  a  refuge,  the  remnants  of 
the  insurgents  still  held  out  for  years  in  the  rock-castles 
Machaerus  and  Massada,  till  at  length,  as  the  last  of  the 
free  Jews,  Eleazar  grandson  of  Judas  the  Galilean,  and 
his  adherents  put  to  death  first  their  wives  and  children, 
and  then  themselves.  The  work  was  done.  That  the  em- 
peror Vespasian,  an  able  soldier,  did  not  disdain  on  ac- 
count of  such  an  inevitable  success  over  a  small  long-sub- 
ject people  to  march  as  victor  to  the  Capitol,  and  that  the 
seven-armed  candelabrum  brought  home  from  the  Holy  of 
Holies  of  the  temple  is  still  to  be.  seen  at  the  present  day 
on  the  honorary  arch  which  the  imperial  senate  erected 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  ami  the  Jews. 


235 


to  Titus  in  the  market  of  the  capital,'  gives  no  high  con- 
ception of  the  warlike  spirit  of  this  time.  It  is  true  that 
the  deep  aversion,  which  the  Occidentals  cherished  to- 
wards the  Jewish  people,  made  up  in  some  measure  for 
what  was  wanting  in  martial  glory,  and  if  the  Jewish 
name  was  too  vile  for  the  emperors  to  assign  it  to  them- 
selves, like  those  of  the  Germans  and  the  Parthians,  they 
deemed  it  not  beneath  their  dignity  to  prepare  for  the 
populace  of  the  capital  this  triumph  commemorative  of 
the  victor's  pleasure  in  the  misfortunes  of  others. 

The  work  of  the  sword  was  followed  by  a  change  of 
policy.     The  policy  pursued  by  the  earlier 
the  Jewish  cen-  Hellenistic  states,  and  taken  over  from  them 
tral  power.  Komans — which  reached  in  reality  far 

beyond  mere  tolerance  towards  foreign  ways  and  foreign 
faith,  and  recognized  the  Jews  in  their  collective  character 
as  a  national  and  religious  community — had  become  im- 
possible. In  the  Jewish  insurrection  the  dangers  had 
been  too  clearly  brought  to  light,  which  this  formation  of 
a  national-religious  union — on  the  one  hand  rigidly  con- 
centrated, on  the  other  spreading  over  the  whole  East  and 
having  ramifications  even  in  the  West — involved.  The 
central  worship  was  accordingly  once  for  all  set  aside. 
This  resolution  of  the  government  stood  undoubtedly  fixed, 
and  had  nothing  in  common  with  the  question,  which  can- 
not be  answered  with  certainty,  whether  the  destruction  of 
the  temple  took  place  by  design  or  by  accident ;  if,  on  the 

'  This  arch  was  erected  to  Titus  after  his  death  by  the  imperial 
senate.  Another,  dedicated  to  him  during  his  short  government  by 
the  same  senate  in  the  circus  (C.  /.  L.  vi.  944)  specifies  even  with 
express  words  as  the  ground  of  erecting  the  monument,  "because 
he,  according  to  the  precept  and  direction  and  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  his  father,  subdued  tlie  people  of  the  Jews  and  de- 
stroyed the  town  of  Hierusolyma,  which  up  to  his  time  had  either 
been  besieged  in  vain  by  all  generals,  kings,  and  peoples,  or  not  as- 
sailed at  all."  The  historic  knowledge  of  this  singular  document, 
which  ignores  not  merely  Nebuchadnezzar  and  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
but  their  own  Pompeius,  stands  on  the  same  level  with  its  extrava- 
gance in  the  praise  of  a  very  ordinary  feat  of  arms. 


236  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  [Book  vm. 


one  hand,  the  suppression  of  the  worship  required  only  the 
closing  of  the  temple  and  the  magnificent  structure  might 
have  been  spared,  on  the  other  hand,  had  the  temple  been 
accidentally  destroyed,  the  worship  might  have  been  con- 
tinued in  a  temple  rebuilt.  No  doubt  it  will  always  re- 
main probable  that  it  was  not  the  chance  of  war  that  here 
prevailed,  but  the  flames  of  the  temple  were  rather  the 
programme  for  the  altered  policy  of  the  Roman  govern- 
ment with  reference  to  Judaism/  More  clearly  even  than 
in  the  events  at  Jerusalem  the  same  change  is  marked  in 
the  closing — which  ensued  at  the  same  time  on  the  order 
of  Vespasian — of  the  central  sanctuary  of  the  Egyptian 
Jews,  the  temple  of  Onias,  not  far  from  Memphis,  in  the 
Heliopolitan  district,  which  for  centuries  stood  alongside 
of  that  of  Jerusalem,  somewhat  as  the  translation  by  the 
Alexandrian  Seventy  stood  side  by  side  with  the  Old  Tes- 
tament ;  it  too  was  divested  of  its  votive  gifts,  and  the 
worship  of  God  in  it  was  forbidden. 

In  the  further  carrying  out  of  the  new  order  of  things 
the  high  priesthood  and  the  Synhedrion  of  Jerusalem  dis- 
appeared, and  thereby  the  Jews  of  the  empire  lost  their 
outward  supreme  head  and  their  chief  authority  having 
jurisdiction  hitherto  generally  in  religious  questions.  The 
annual  tribute — previously  at  least  tolerated — on  the  part 
of  every  Jew,  without  distinction  of  dwelling-place,  to  the 
temple  did  not  certainly  fall  into  abeyance,  but  was  with 
bitter  parody  transferred  to  the  Capitoline  Jupiter,  and 
his  representative  on  earth,  the  Roman  emperor.  From 

*  The  account  of  Josephus,  that  Titus  with  his  council  of  war  re- 
solved not  to  destroy  the  temple,  excites  suspicion  by  the  manifest 
intention  of  it,  and,  as  the  use  made  of  Tacitus  in  the  chronicle  of 
Sulpicius  Severus  is  completely  proved  by  Bernays,  it  may  certainly 
well  be  a  question  whether  his  quite  opposite  account  ( Ghron.  ii. 
30,  6),  that  the  council  of  war  had  resolved  to  destroy  the  temple, 
does  not  proceed  from  Tacitus,  and  whether  the  preference  is  not  to 
be  given  to  it,  although  it  bears  traces  of  Christian  revision.  This 
view  further  commends  itself  through  the  fact  that  the  dedication 
addressed  to  Vespasian  of  the  Argonautica  of  the  poet  Valerius 
Flaccus  celebrates  the  victor  of  Solyma,  who  hurls  the  fiery  torches. 


Chap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


237 


tlie  character  of  the  Jewish  institutions  the  suppression  of 
the  central  worship  involved  dissolution  of  the  commu- 
nity of  Jerusalem.  The  city  was  not  merely  destroyed  and 
burnt  down,  but  was  left  lying  in  ruins,  like  Carthage  and 
Corinth  once  upon  a  time  ;  its  territory,  public  as  well  as 
private  land,  became  imperial  domain.'  Such  of  the  citi- 
zens of  the  populous  town  as  had  escaped  famine  or  the 
sword  came  under  the  hammer  of  the  slave  market.  Amidst 
the  ruins  of  the  destroyed  town  was  pitched  the  camp 
of  the  legion,  which,  with  its  Spanish  and  Thracian  auxil- 
iaries, was  thenceforth  to  do  garrison  duty  in  the  Jewish 
land.  The  provincial  troops  hitherto  recruited  in  Pales- 
tine itself  were  transferred  elsewhere.  In  Emmaus,  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  Jerusalem,  a  number  of  Ro- 
man veterans  were  settled,  but  urban  rights  were  not  con- 
ferred on  this  place.  On  the  other  hand,  the  old  Sichem, 
the  religious  centre  of  the  Samaritan  community,  perhaps 
a  Greek  city  even  from  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
was  now  reorganised  in  the  forms  of  Hellenic  polity  under 
the  name  Flavia  Neapolis.  The  capital  of  the  land,  Cae- 
sarea,  hitherto  a  Greek  urban  community,  obtained  as 
"  first  Flavian  colony  "  Eoman  organisation  and  Latin  as 
the  language  of  business.  These  were  essays  towards  the 
Occidental  municipalising  of  the  Jewish  land.  Neverthe- 
less Judaea  proper,  though  depopulated  and  impoverished, 
remained  still  Jewish  as  before  ;  the  light  in  which  the 
government  looked  upon  the  land  is  shown  by  the  thor- 
oughly anomalous  permanent  military  occupation,  which,  as 
Judaea  was  not  situated  on  the  frontier  of  the  empire,  can 
only  have  been  destined  to  keep  down  the  inhabitants. 

1  That  the  emperor  took  tliis  land  for  himself  (iSiW  avrtf  t\\v  x'^pct" 
(pvXdTTcov)  is  stated  by  Josephus,  Bell  Jud.  vii.  6,  6  ;  not  in  accord 
with  this  is  his  command  ircKTav  yriv  airoSoa-Oai  twv  'lovSaiuv  {I.  c),  in 
which  doubtless  there  lurks  an  error  or  a  copyist's  mistake.  It  is 
in  keeping  with  the  expropriation  that  land  was  by  way  of  grace 
assigned  elsewhere  to  individual  Jewish  landowners  (Josephus,  vit. 
16).  We  may  add  that  the  territory  was  probably  employed  as  an 
endowment  for  the  legion  stationed  there  {Eph.  epigr.  ii.  n.  696  ; 
Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  54). 


238 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


The  Herodians,  too,  did  not  long  survive  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem.  King  Agrippa  U.,  the  ruler  of 
SeroSanf*^'  Caesarea  Paneas  and  of  Tiberias,  had  ren- 
dered faithful  service  to  the  Romans  in  the 
vs^ar  against  his  countrymen,  and  had  even  scars,  hon- 
ourable at  least  in  a  military  sense,  to  show  from  it ; 
besides,  his  sister  Berenice,  a  Cleopatra  on  a  small  scale, 
held  the  heart  of  the  conqueror  of  Jerusalem  captive  with 
the  remnant  of  her  much  asserted  charms.  So  he  re- 
mained personally  in  possession  of  the  dominion  ;  but  after 
his  death,  some  thirty  years  later,  this  last  reminiscence 
of  the  Jewish  state  was  merged  in  the  Roman  province  of 
Syria. 

No  hindrances  were  put  in  the  way  of  the  Jews  exer- 
cising their  religious  customs  either  in  Pales- 
ment  of  the  tine  or  elsewhere.  Their  religious  instruc- 
tion  itself,  and  the  assemblies  in  connection 
with  it  of  their  law-teachers  and  law-experts,  were  at  least 
permitted  in  Palestine  ;  and  there  was  no  hindrance  to 
these  Rabbinical  unions  attempting  to  put  themselves 
in  some  measure  in  the  room  of  the  former  Synhedrion  of 
Jerusalem,  and  to  fix  their  doctrine  and  their  laws  in  the 
groundwork  of  the  Talmud.  Although  individual  par- 
takers in  the  Jewish  insurrection  who  fled  to  Egypt  and 
Cyrene  produced  troubles  there,  the  bodies  of  Jews  outside 
of  Palestine,  so  far  as  we  see,  were  left  in  their  previous 
position.  Against  the  Jew-hunt,  which  just  about  the 
time  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  called  forth  in 
Antioch  by  the  circumstance  that  the  Jews  there  had 
been  publicly  charged  by  one  of  their  renegade  comrades 
in  the  faith  with  the  intention  of  setting  the  town  on  fire, 
the  representative  of  the  governor  of  Syria  interfered  with 
energy,  and  did  not  allow  what  was  proposed — that  they 
should  compel  the  Jews  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  of  the  land 
and  to  refrain  from  keeping  the  Sabbath.  Titus  himself, 
when  he  came  to  Antioch,  most  distinctly  dismissed  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  there  with  their  request  for  the 
ejection  of  the  Jews,  or  at  least  the  cancelling  of  their 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


239 


privileges.  People  shrank  from  declaring  war  on  the  Jew- 
ish faith  as  such,  and  from  driving  the  far-branching  Dias- 
pora to  extremities  ;  it  was  enough  that  Judaism  was  in  its 
political  representation  deleted  from  the  commonwealth. 
The  alteration  in  the  policy  pursued  since  Alexander's 
time  towards  Judaism  amounted  in  the  main 
quences  of  the  to  the  withdrawing  from  this  religious  so- 
catastrophe.  gietj  uuity  of  leadership  and  external  com- 
pactness, and  to  the  wresting  out  of  the  hands  of  its 
leaders  a  power  which  extended  not  merely  over  the  na- 
tive land,  of  the  Jews,  but  over  the  bodies  of  Jews  gener- 
ally within  and  beyond  the  Roman  empire,  and  certainly 
in  the  East  was  prejudicial  to  the  unity  of  imperial  gov- 
ernment. The  Lagids  as  well  as  the  Seleucids,  and  not 
less  the  Eoman  emperors  of  the  Julio-Claudian  dynasty, 
had  put  up  with  this  ;  but  the  immediate  rule  of  the 
Occidentals  over  Judaea  had  sharpened  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  imperial  power  and  this  power  of  the  priests  to 
such  a  degree,  that  the  catastrophe  set  in  with  inevitable 
necessity  and  brought  its  consequences.  From  a  politi- 
cal standpoint  we  may  censure,  doubtless,  the  remorse- 
lessness  of  the  conduct  of  the  war — which,  moreover,  is 
pretty  much  common  to  this  war  with  all  similar  ones  in 
Roman  history — but  hardly  the  religious-political  dis- 
solution of  the  nation  ordained  in  consequence  of  it.  If 
the  axe  was  laid  at  the  root  of  institutions  which  had  led, 
and  could  not  but  with  a  certain  necessity  lead,  to  the 
formation  of  a  party  like  that  of  the  zealots,  there  was  but 
done  what  was  right  and  necessary,  however  severely  and 
unjustly  in  the  special  case  the  individual  might  be  af- 
fected by  it.  Vespasian,  who  gave  the  decision,  was  a 
judicious  and  moderate  ruler.  The  question  concerned 
was  one  not  of  faith  but  of  power  ;  the  Jewish  church- state, 
as  head  of  the  Diaspora,  was  not  compatible  with  the  abso- 
luteness of  the  secular  great-state.  From  the  general  rule 
of  toleration  the  government  did  not  even  in  this  case 
depart ;  it  waged  war  not  against  Judaism  but  against  the 
high  priest  and  the  Synhedrion. 


240 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


Nor  did  the  destruction  of  the  temple  wholly  fail  in 
this  its  aim.  There  were  not  a  few  Jews  and 
still  more  proselytes,  particularly  in  the  Dias- 
pora, who  adhered  more  to  the  Jewish  moral  law  and  to 
Jewish  Monotheism  than  to  the  strictly  national  form  of 
faith  ;  the  whole  respectable  sect  of  the  Christians  had  in- 
wardly broken  off  from  Judaism  and  stood  partly  in  open 
opposition  to  the  Jewish  ritual.  For  these  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem  was  by  no  means  the  end  of  things,  and  within 
this  extensive  and  influential  circle  the  government  ob- 
tained in  some  measure  what  it  aimed  at  by  breaking  up 
the  central  seat  of  the  Jewish  worship.  The  separation 
of  the  Christian  faith  common  to  the  nations  from  the 
national  Jewish,  the  victory  of  the  adherents  of  Paul  over 
those  of  Peter,  was  essentially  promoted  by  the  abeyance 
of  the  Jewish  central  cultus. 

But  among  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  where  the  language 
spoken  was  not  Hebrew  indeed,  but  Aramaic, 
jjJS*^"^^'^  and  among  the  portion  of  the  Diaspora  which 
clung  firmly  to  Jerusalem,  the  breach  between 
Judaism  and  the  rest  of  the  world  was  deepened  by  the 
destruction  of  the  temple.  The  national-religious  exclu- 
siveness,  which  the  government  wished  to  obviate,  was  in 
this  narrow  circle  rather  strengthened  by  the  violent  at- 
tempt to  break  it  down,  and  driven,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  further  desperate  struggles. 

Not  quite  fifty  years  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
in  the  year  116,'  the  Jews  of  the  eastern  Medi- 

The  Jewish         ,  •      j    j  i       •  •  i 

rising  under  terranean  rose  against  the  imperial  govern- 
Trajan.  mcut.     The  risiug,  although  undertaken  by 

the  Diaspora,  was  of  a  purely  national  character  in  its 
chief  seats,  Cyrene,  Cyprus,  Egypt,  directed  to  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Komans  as  of  the  Hellenes,  and,  apparently, 
to  the  establishment  of  a  separate  Jewish  state.  It 
ramified  even  into  Asiatic  territory,  and  seized  Mesopo- 

^  Eusebius,  H.  E.  iv.  2,  puts  the  outbreak  on  the  18th,  and  so, 
according  to  his  reckoning  (in  the  Chronicle),  the  penultimate  year 
of  Trajan  ;  and  therewith  Dio,  Ixviii.  33,  agrees. 


Chap.  XT.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


241 


tamia  and  Palestine  itself.  When  the  insurgents  were 
victorious  they  conducted  the  war  with  the  same  exaspera- 
tion as  the  Sicarii  in  Jerusalem  ;  they  killed  those  whom 
they  seized — the  historian  Appian,  a  native  of  Alexandria, 
narrates  how  he,  running  from  them  for  his  life,  with 
great  difficulty  made  his  escape  to  Pelusium — and  often 
they  put  the  captives  to  death  under  excruciating  torture, 
or  compelled  them — just  as  Titus  formerly  compelled  the 
Jews  captured  in  Jerusalem — to  fall  as  gladiators  in  the 
arena  in  order  to  delight  the  eyes  of  the  victors.  In  Gy- 
rene 220,000,  in  Cyprus  even  240,000  men  are  said  to 
have  been  thus  put  to  death  by  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  Alexandria,  which  does  not  appear  itself  to  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  Jews,^  the  besieged  Hellenes  slew 
whatever  Jews  were  then  in  the  city.  The  immediate 
cause  of  the  rising  is  not  clear.  The  blood  of  the  zealots, 
who  had  taken  refuge  at  Alexandria  and  Cyrene,  and  had 
there  sealed  their  loyalty  to  the  faith  by  dying  under  the 
axe  of  the  Roman  executioner,  may  not  have  flowed  in 
vain  ;  the  Parthian  war,  during  which  the  insurrection  be- 
gan, so  far  promoted  it,  as  the  troops  stationed  in  Egypt 
had  probably  been  called  to  the  theatre  of  war.  To  all 
appearance  it  was  an  outbreak  of  the  religious  exasperation 
of  the  Jews,  which  had  been  glowing  in  secret  like  a  vol- 
cano since  the  destruction  of  the  temple  and  broke  out 
after  an  incalculable  manner  into  flames,  of  such  a  kind  as 
the  East  has  at  all  times  produced  and  produces ;  if  the 
insurgents  really  proclaimed  a  Jew  as  king,  this  rising 
certainly  had,  like  that  in  their  native  country,  its  central 
seat  in  the  great  mass  of  the  common  people.  That  this 
Jewish  rising  partly  coincided  with  the  formerly-mentioned 
(p.  73)  attempt  at  liberation  of  the  peoples  shortly  before 
subdued  by  the  emperor  Trajan,  while  the  latter  was  in 

'  EuseMus  himself  (in  Sjncellus)  says  only:  ' Klf)iavhs '\ovl<xiovs 
Kara  'AAelovSpecwi/  aTaffia^oPTa^  eKShaffev.  The  Armenian  and  Latin 
translations  appear  to  have  erroneously  made  out  of  this  a  restora- 
tion of  Alexandria  destroyed  by  the  Jews,  of  which  Eusebius, 
jEZi  B.  iv.  3,  and  Dio,  Ixviii.  32,  know  nothing. 
Vol.  II.— 16 


242 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


the  far  East  at  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  gave  to  it 
even  a  political  significance  ;  if  the  successes  of  this 
ruler  melted  away  under  his  hands  at  the  close  of  his  ca- 
reer, the  Jewish  insurrection,  particularly  in  Palestine  and 
Mesopotamia,  contributed  its  part  to  that  result.  In  order 
to  put  down  the  insurrection  the  troops  had  everywhere  to 
take  the  field ;  against  the  "  king  "  of  the  Cyrenaean  Jews, 
Andreas  or  Lukuas,  and  the  insurgents  in  Egypt,  Trajan 
sent  Quintus  Marcius  Turbo  with  an  army  and  fleet  ; 
against  the  insurgents  in  Mesopotamia,  as  was  already 
stated,  Lusius  Quietus — two  of  his  most  experienced 
generals.  The  insurgents  were  nowhere  able  to  offer  re- 
sistance to  the  compact  troops,  although  the  struggle  was 
prolonged  in  Africa  as  in  Palestine  to  the  first  times  of 
Hadrian,  and  similar  punishments  were  inflicted  on  this 
Diaspora  as  previously  on  the  Jews  of  Palestine.  That 
Trajan  annihilated  the  Jews  in  Alexandria,  as  Appian  says, 
is  hardly  an  incorrect,  although  perhaps  a  too  blunt  ex- 
pression for  what  took  place  ;  for  Cyprus  it  is  attested 
that  thenceforth  no  Jew  might  even  set  foot  upon  the 
island,  and  death  there  awaited  even  the  shipvsTecked  Is- 
raelites. If  our  traditional  information  was  as  copious 
in  regard  to  this  catastrophe  as  in  regard  to  that  of  Jeru- 
salem, it  would  probably  appear  as  its  continuation  and 
completion,  and  in  some  sense  also  as  its  explanation  ; 
this  rising  shows  the  relation  of  the  Diaspora  to  the  home- 
country,  and  the  state  within  a  state,  into  which  Judaism 
had  developed. 

Even  with  this  second  overthrow  the  revolt  of  Judaism 
against  the  imperial  power  was  not  at  an  end. 
ing  under  We  cannot  say  that  the  latter  gave  further 
Hadrian.  provocatiou  to  it ;  ordinary  acts  of  adminis- 
tration, which  were  accepted  without  opposition  through- 
out the  empire,  affected  the  Hebrews  just  where  the  full 
resisting  power  of  the  national  faith  had  its  seat,  and 
thereby  called  forth,  probably  to  the  surprise  of  the  gov- 
ernors themselves,  an  insurrection  which  was  in  fact  a 
war.    If  the  emperor  Hadrian,  when  his  tour  through  the 


Chap.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


243 


empire^  brought  him  to  Palestine,  resolved  in  the  year  130 
to  re-erect  the  destroyed  holy  city  of  the  Jews  as  a  Ro- 
man colony,  he  certainly  did  not  do  them  the  honour 
of  fearing  them,  and  had  no  thought  of  propagating  re- 
ligious-political views  ;  but  he  ordained  that  this  legionary 
camp  should — as  shortly  before  or  soon  afterwards  was  the 
case  on  the  Rhine,  on  the  Danube,  in  Africa — be  con- 
nected with  an  urban  community  recruiting  itself  prima- 
rily from  the  veterans,  which  received  its  name  partly  from 
its  founder,  partly  from  the  god  to  whom  at  that  time  the 
Jews  paid  tribute  instead  of  Jehovah.  Similar  was  the 
state  of  the  case  as  to  the  prohibition  of  circumcision ;  it 
was  issued,  as  will  be  observed  at  a  later  point,  probably 
without  any  design  of  thereby  making  w^ar  on  Judaism  as 
such.  As  may  be  conceived,  the  Jews  did  not  inquire 
as  to  the  motives  for  that  founding  of  the  city  and  for 
this  prohibition,  but  felt  both  as  an  attack  on  their  faith 
and  their  nationality,  and  answered  it  by  an  insurrection 
which,  neglected  at  first  by  the  Romans,  thereupon  had 
not  its  match  for  intensity  and  duration  in  the  history  of 
the  Roman  imperial  period.  The  whole  body  of  the  Jews 
at  home  and  abroad  was  agitated  by  the  movement  and 
supported  more  or  less  openly  the  insurgents  on  the  Jor- 
dan ;  ^  even  Jerusalem  fell  into  their  hands,  ^  and  the  gov- 
ernor of  Syria  and  indeed  the  emperor  Hadrian  appeared 
on  the  scene  of  conflict.    The  war  was  led,  significantly 

^  This  is  shown  by  the  expressions  of  Dio,  Ixix.  13  :  ol  avavraxov 
7TJS  '\ov^aioi  and  ird(rr]s  uis  etVeij'  Kivov{x4vr\s  eVl  tovtc^  t^s  olKOvfxevT]s. 

If,  according  to  the  contemporary  Appian  {Syr.  50),  Hadrian 
once  more  destroyed  {KarsffKo^e)  the  town,  this  proves  as  well  that 
it  was  preceded  by  an  at  least  in  some  measure  complete  formation 
of  the  colony,  as  that  it  was  captured  by  the  insurgents.  Only 
thereby  is  explained  the  great  loss  which  the  Romans  suffered 
(Fronto,  de  hello  Partli.  p.  218  Nab. :  Hadriano  imperium  ohtinente 
quantum  miliium  a  Tudaesis  .  .  .  caesum  ;  Dio,  Ixix.  14)  ;  and 
it  accords  at  least  well  with  this,  that  the  governor  of  Syria,  Pub- 
licius  Marcellus,  left  his  province  to  bring  help  to  his  colleage  Tin- 
eius  Rufus  (Eusebius,  H.  E.  iv.  6  ;  Borghesi,  Opp.  iii.  64)  ;  in  Pal- 
§5ti^e  (C.  I.  Or.  4033,  4034). 


244 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


enough,  by  the  priest  Eleazar  ^  and  the  bandit-chief  Simon, 
surnamed  Bar-Kokheba,  i.e.  son  of  the  stars,  as  the  bringer 
of  heavenly  help,  perhaps  as  Messiah.  The  financial  power 
and  the  organisation  of  the  insurgents  are  testified  by 
the  silver  and  copper  coins  struck  through  several  years 
in  the  name  of  these  two.  After  a  sufficient  number  of 
troops  was  brought  together,  the  experienced  general  Sex- 
tus  Julius  Severus  gained  the  upper  hand,  but  only  by  a 
gradual  and  slow  advance  ;  quite  as  in  the  war  under  Ves- 
pasian no  pitched  battle  took  place,  but  one  place  after 
another  cost  time  and  blood,  till  at  length  after  a  three 
years'  warfare  ^  the  last  castle  of  the  insurgents,  the  strong 
Bether,  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  was  stormed  by  the  Ko- 
mans.  The  numbers  handed  down  to  us  in  good  accounts 
of  50  fortresses  taken,  985  villages  occupied,  580,000  that 
fell,  are  not  incredible,  since  the  war  was  waged  with  in- 
exorable cruelty,  and  the  male  population  was  probably 
everywhere  put  to  death. 

In  consequence  of  this  rising  the  very  name  of  the  van- 
quished people  was  set  aside  ;  the  province 
Hadrian^*'^'^  was  thcuceforth  termed,  not  as  formerly  Ju- 
daea, but  by  the  old  name  of  Herodotus  Sy- 
ria of  the  Philistines,  or  Syria  Palaestina.  The  land  re- 
mained desolate  ;  the  new  city  of  Hadrian  continued  to 
exist,  but  did  not  prosper.    The  Jews  were  prohibited 


'  That  the  coins  with  this  name  belong  to  the  Hadrianic  insurrec- 
tion is  now  proved  (v.  Sallet,  Zeitsclir  jur  Numism.  v.  110);  this  is 
consequently  the  Rabbi  Eleazar  from  Modein  of  the  Jewish  ac- 
counts (Ewald,  Oesch.  Isr.  vii.'^,  418  ;  Schlirer,  Lehrbuch^  p.  357). 
That  the  Simon  whom  these  coins  name  partly  with  Eleazar,  partly 
alone,  is  the  Bar-Kokheba  of  Justin  Martyr  and  Eusebius  is  at  least 
very  probable. 

^  Dio  (Ixix.  12)  calls  the  war  protracted  {ovt  oXiyoxp^vios)  ;  Euse- 
bius in  his  Chronicle  puts  its  beginning  in  the  sixteenth,  its  end  in 
the  eighteenth  or  nineteenth  year  of  Hadrian  ;  the  coins  of  the  in- 
surgents are  dated  from  the  first  or  from  the  second  year  of  the  de- 
liverance of  Israel.  We  have  not  trustworthy  dates  ;  the  Rabbinic 
tradition  (Schiirer,  LelirhucJi,  p.  361)  is  not  available  in  this  re- 
spect. 


Ohap.  XI.]  Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


under  penalty  of  death  from  even  setting  foot  in  Jerusalem; 
the  garrison  was  doubled  ;  the  limited  territory  between 
Egypt  and  Syria,  to  which  only  a  small  strip  of  the  Trans- 
jordanic  domain  on  the  Dead  Sea  belonged,  and  which 
nowhere  touched  the  frontier  of  the  empire,  was  thence- 
forth furnished  with  two  legions.  In  spite  of  all  these 
strong  measures  the  province  remained  disturbed,  pri- 
marily doubtless  in  consequence  of  the  bandit-habits  long 
interwoven  with  the  national  cause.  Pius  issued  orders  to 
march  against  the  Jews,  and  even  under  Severus  there  is 
mention  of  a  war  against  Jews  and  Samaritans.  But  no 
movements  on  a  great  scale  among  the  Jews  recurred  after 
the  Hadrianic  war. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  these  repeated  outbreaks 

of  the  animosity  fermenting  in  the  minds  of 
jewa^n  thV^'^  the  Jows  agaiust  the  whole  of  their  non-Jewish 
Surier.'^*^'"'^  fellow-citizens  did  not  change  the  general 

policy  of  the  government.  Like  Vespasian, 
the  succeeding  emperors  maintained,  as  respects  the  Jews 
in  the  main,  the  general  standpoint  of  political  and  re- 
Hgious  toleration  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  the  exceptional 
laws  issued  for  the  Jews  were,  and  continued  to  be,  chiefly 
directed  to  release  them  from  such  general  civil  duties  as 
were  not  compatible  with  their  habits  and  their  faith, 
and  they  are  therefore  designated  directly  as  privileges.^ 

Since  the  time  of  Claudius,  whose  suppression  of  Jewish 
worship  in  Italy  (p.  216)  is  at  least  the  last  measure  of  the 
sort  which  we  know  of,  residence  and  the  free  exercise  of 
religion  in  the  whole  empire  appear  to  have  been  in  law 
conceded  to  the  Jew.  It  would  have  been  no  wonder  if 
those  insurrections  in  the  African  and  Syrian  provinces 
had  led  to  the  expulsion  generally  of  the  Jews  settled 
there ;  but  restrictions  of  this  sort  were  enacted,  as  we 

'  Biography  of  Alexander,  c.  23 :  ludaeis  frimlegia  reservamt, 
Christianos  esse  passus  est.  Clearlj  the  privileged  position  of  the 
Jews  as  compared  with  the  Christians  comes  here  to  light — a  po- 
sition, which  certainly  rests  in  its  turn  on  the  fact  that  the  former 
represent  a  nation  the  latter  do  not. 


246 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


saw,  only  locally,  e.g.  for  Cyprus.  The  Greek  provinces 
always  remained  the  chief  seat  of  the  Jews  ;  even  in  the 
capital  in  some  measure  bilingual,  whose  numerous  body 
of  Jews  had  a  series  of  synagogues,  these  formed  a  por- 
tion of  the  Greek  population  of  Rome.  Their  epitaphs  in 
Rome  are  exclusively  Greek  ;  in  the  Christian  church  at 
Rome  developed  from  this  Jewish  body  the  baptismal 
confession  was  uttered  in  Greek  down  to  a  late  period, 
and  throughout  the  first  three  centuries  the  authorship 
was  exclusively  Greek.  But  restrictive  measures  against 
the  Jews  appear  not  to  have  been  adopted  even  in  the 
Latin  provinces  ;  through  and  with  Hellenism  the  Jew- 
ish system  penetrated  into  the  West,  and  there  too  com- 
munities of  Jews  were  found,  although  they  were  still  in 
number  and  importance  even  now,  v/hen  the  blows  directed 
against  the  Diaspora  had  severely  injured  the  Jew-com- 
munities of  the  East,  far  inferior  to  the  latter. 

Political  privileges  did  not  follow  of  themselves  from 
the  toleration  of  worship.  The  Jews  were  not 
SSs^"''"  hindered  in  the  construction  of  their  syna- 
gogues and  proseuchae  any  more  than  in  the 
appointment  of  a  president  for  the  same  (dp;)(tcrwa'ya>yos), 
as  well  as  of  a  college  of  elders  {ap^ovr^i),  with  a  chief 
elder  (ycpouo-tap^Tys)  at  its  head.  Magisterial  functions 
were  not  meant  to  be  connected  with  these  positions  ; 
but,  considering  the  inseparableness  of  the  Jewish  church- 
organisation  and  the  Jewish  administration  of  law,  the 
presidents  probably  everywhere  exercised,  like  the  bish- 
ops in  the  Middle  Ages,  a  jurisdiction,  although  merely 
de  facto.  The  bodies  of  Jews  in  the  several  towns  were 
not  recognised  generally  as  corporations,  certainly  not, 
for  example,  those  of  Rome  ;  3'^et  there  subsisted  at 
many  places  on  the  ground  of  local  privileges  such  corpo- 
rative unions  with  ethnarchs  or,  as  they  were  now  mostly 
called,  patriarchs  at  their  head.  Indeed,  in  Palestine  we 
find  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  once  more  a 
president  of  the  whole  Jewish  body,  who,  in  virtue  of 
hereditary  sacerdotal  right,  bears  sway  over  his  fellow- 


Chaf.  XL] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


247 


believers  almost  like  a  ruler,  and  has  power  even  over  life 
and  limb,  and  whom  the  government  at  least  tolerates/ 
Beyond  question  this  patriarch  was  for  the  Jews  the  old 
high  priest,  and  thus,  under  the  eyes  and  under  the  op- 
pression of  the  foreign  rule,  the  obstinate  people  of  God 
had  once  more  reconstituted  themselves,  and  in  so  far 
overthrown  Vespasian's  work. 

As  respects  the  bringing  of  the  Jews  under  obligations 
of  public  service,  their  exemption  from  serv- 

Public  services.    .         .  .  i  •!  i         'n     ji     •  t 

mg  m  war  as  incompatible  with  tneir  relig- 
ious principles  had  long  since  been  and  continued  to 
be  recognised.  The  special  poll-tax  to  which  they  were 
subject,  the  old  temple-payment,  might  be  regarded  as  a 
compensation  for  this  exemption,  though  it  had  not  been 
imposed  in  this  sense.  For  other  services,  as  e.g.  for  the 
undertaking  of  wardships  and  municipal  officers,  they 
were  at  least  from  the  time  of  Severus  regarded  in  general 
as  capable  and  under  obligation,  but  those  which  ran  coun- 
ter to  their  superstition "  were  remitted  to  them  ;  ^  in 
connection  with  which  we  have  to  take  into  account  that 

^  In  order  to  make  good  that  even  in  bondage  tlie  Jews  were  able 
to  exercise  a  certain  self-administration,  Origen  (about  tbe  year 
226)  writes  to  Africanus,  c.  14 :  "How  mucli  even  now,  wbere  tbe 
Romans  rule  and  the  Jews  pay  to  them  the  tribute  (tJ)  5t5paxiuoj/), 
has  the  president  of  the  people  (6  idvdpxn^)  among  them  in  his 
power  with  permission  of  the  emperor  {crvYxopovvTOs  Kalarapos)  ? 
Even  courts  are  secretly  held  according  to  the  law,  and  even  on 
various  occasions  sentence  of  death  is  pronounced.  This  I,  who 
have  long  lived  in  the  land  of  this  people,  have  myself  experienced 
and  ascertained."  The  patriarch  of  Judaea  already  makes  his 
appearance  in  the  letter  forged  in  the  name  of  Hadrian  in  the  biog- 
raphy of  the  tyrant  Saturninus  (c.  8),  in  the  ordinances  first  in  the 
year  392  ( O.  Th.  xvi.  8,  8).  Patriarchs  as  presidents  of  individual 
Jewish  communities,  for  which  the  word  from  its  signification  is 
better  adapted,  meet  us  already  in  the  ordinances  of  Constantine  I. 
{G.  Th.  xvi.  8,  1,  2). 

2  The  jurists  of  the  third  century  lay  down  this  rule,  appealing 
to  an  edict  of  Severus  {Dig.  xxvii.  1,  15,  6  ;  1.  2,  3,  3).  According 
to  the  ordinance  of  the  year  321  ( G.  Th.  xvi.  8,  3)  this  appears  even 
as  a  right,  not  as  a  duty  of  the  Jews,  so  that  it  depended  on  them 
to  undertake  or  decline  the  office. 


248 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


exclusion  from  municipal  offices  became  more  and  more 
converted  from  a  slight  into  a  privilege.  Even  in  the  case 
of  state  offices  in  later  times  a  similar  course  was  prob- 
ably pursued. 

The  only  serious  interference  of  the  state-power  with 
Jewish  customs  concerned  the  ceremony  of 
circumcisioii!^  circumcisiou  ;  the  measures  directed  against 
this,  however,  were  probably  not  taken  from 
a  religious-political  standpoint,  but  were  connected  with 
the  forbidding  of  castration,  and  arose  doubtless  in  part 
from  misunderstanding  of  the  Jewish  custom.  The  evil 
habit  of  mutilation,  becoming  more  and  more  prevalent, 
was  first  brought  by  Domitian  within  the  sphere  of  penal 
offences  ;  when  Hadrian,  making  the  precept  more  strin- 
gent, placed  castration  under  the  law  of  murder,  circum- 
cision appears  also  to  have  been  apprehended  as  castra- 
tion,' which  certainly  could  not  but  be  felt  and  was  felt 
(p.  243)  by  the  Jews  as  an  attack  upon  their  existence, 
although  this  was  perhaps  not  its  intention.  Soon  after- 
wards, probably  in  consequence  of  the  insurrection  there- 
by occasioned,  Pius  allowed  the  circumcision  of  children  of 
Jewish  descent,  while  otherwise  even  that  of  the  non-free 
Jew,  and  of  the  proselyte  was  to  involve,  afterwards  as 
before,  the  penalty  of  castration  for  all  participating  in  it. 
This  was  in  so  far  also  of  political  importance,  as  thereby  the 
formal  passing  over  to  Judaism  became  a  penal  offence  ; 
and  probably  the  prohibition  in  this  very  sense  was  not  re- 
mitted but  maintained.^  It  must  have  contributed  its  part 
to  the  abrupt  demarcation  of  the  Jews  from  the  non-Jews. 

'  The  analogous  treatment  of  castration  in  the  Hadrianic  edict  Big. 
xlviii.  8,  4,  2,  and  of  circumcision  in  Paulus,  Sent.  v.  22,  3,  4,  and 
Modestinus,  Dig.  xlviii.  8,  11  pr.,  naturally  suggests  this  point  of 
view.  The  statement  that  Severus  Judaeos  fieri  sub  gravi  poena  netuit 
{Vita,  17),  is  doubtless  nothing  but  the  enforcement  of  this  pro- 
hibition. 

-  The  remarkable  account  in  Origen's  treatise  against  Celsus,  ii. 
13  (written  about  250),  shows  that  the  circumcision  of  the  non-Jew 
involved  de  iure  the  penalty  of  death,  although  it  is  not  clear  how 
far  this  found  application  to  Samaritans  or  Sicarii. 


Chap.  XI.] 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


If  we  look  back  on  the  fortunes  of  Judaism  in  the  epoch 
from  Augustus  to  Diocletian,  we  recognise  a 
^^the  jewfi?"  thorough  transformation  of  its  character  and 
the  imperial     of  its  positiou.    It  cntcrs  upou  this  cpoch  as 

period.  /■  ,  , 

a  national  and  religious  power  firmly  con- 
centrated round  its  narrow  native  land — a  power  which 
even  confronts  the  imperial  government  in  and  beyond 
Judaea  with  arms  in  hand,  and  in  the  field  of  faith  evolves 
a  mighty  propagandist  energy.  We  can  understand  that 
the  Koman  government  would  not  tolerate  the  adoration 
of  Jehovah  and  the  faith  of  Moses  on  another  footing  than 
that  on  which  the  cultus  of  Mithra  and  the  faith  of  Zo- 
roaster were  tolerated.  The  reaction  against  this  exclu- 
sive and  self-centred  Judaism  came  in  the  crushing  blows 
directed  by  Vespasian  and  Hadrian  against  the  Jewish 
land,  and  by  Trajan  against  the  Jews  of  the  Diaspora,  the 
effect  of  which  reached  far  beyond  the  immediate  destruc- 
tion of  the  existing  society  and  the  reduction  of  the  repute 
and  power  of  the  Jews  as  a  body.  In  fact,  the  later  Chris- 
tianity and  the  later  Judaism  were  the  consequences  of 
this  reaction  of  the  West  against  the  East.  The  great 
propagandist  movement,  which  carried  the  deeper  view  of 
religion  from  the  East  into  the  West,  was  liberated  in  this 
way,  as  was  already  said  (p.  239  f.),  from  the  narrow  limits 
of  Jewish  nationality  ;  if  it  by  no  means  gave  up  the  at- 
tachment to  Moses  and  the  prophets,  it  necessarily  became 
released  at  any  rate  from  the  government  of  the  Pharisees, 
which  had  gone  to  pieces.  The  Christian  ideals  of  the 
future  became  universal,  since  there  was  no  longer  a  Je- 
rusalem upon  earth.  But  as  the  enlarged  and  deepened 
faith,  which  with  its  nature  changed  also  its  name,  arose 
out  of  these  disasters,  so  not  less  the  narrowed  and  har- 
dened orthodoxy,  which  found  a  rallying  point,  if  no 
longer  in  Jerusalem,  at  any  rate  in  hatred  towards  those 
who  had  destroyed  it,  and  still  more  in  hatred  towards 
the  more  free  and  higher  intellectual  movement  which 
evolved  Christianity  out  of  Judaism.  The  external  power 
of  the  Jews  was  broken,  and  risings,  such  as  took  place 


250 


Judaea  and  the  Jews. 


[Book  VIII. 


in  the  middle  of  the  imperial  period,  are  not  subsequently 
met  with  ;  the  Eoman  emperors  were  done  with  the  state 
within  the  state,  and,  as  the  properly  dangerous  element — 
the  propagandist  diffusion — passed  over  to  Christianity, 
the  confessors  of  the  old  faith,  who  shut  themselves  off 
from  the  New  Covenant,  were  set  aside,  so  far  as  the 
further  general  development  was  concerned. 

But  if  the  legions  could  destroy  Jerusalem,  they  could 

not  raze  Judaism  itself  ;  and  what  on  the  one 
teS'juSm.'  ^i^^        ^  remedy,  exercised  on  the  other  the 

effect  of  a  poison.  J udaism  not  only  remained, 
but  it  became  an  altered  thing.  There  is  a  deep  gulf  be- 
tween the  Judaism  of  the  older  time,  which  seeks  to  spread 
its  faith,  which  has  its  temple-court  filled  with  the  Gen- 
tiles, and  which  has  its  priests  offering  daily  sacrifices  for 
the  emperor  Augustus,  and  the  rigid  Rabbinism,  which 
knew  nothing  and  wished  to  know  nothing  of  the  world 
beyond  Abraham's  bosom  and  the  Mosaic  law.  Strangers 
the  Jews  always  were,  and  had  wished  to  be  so  ;  but  the 
feeling  of  estrangement  now  culminated  within  them  as 
well  as  against  them  after  a  fearful  fashion,  and  rudely 
were  its  hateful  and  pernicious  consequences  drawn  on 
both  sides.  From  the  contemptuous  sarcasm  of  Horace 
against  the  intruding  Jew  from  the  Roman  Ghetto  there 
is  a  wide  step  to  the  solemn  enmity  which  Tacitus  cher- 
ishes against  this  scum  of  the  human  race,  to  which  every- 
thing pure  is  impure  and  everything  impure  pure  ;  in  the 
interval  lie  those  insurrections  of  the  despised  people,  and 
the  necessity  of  conquering  it  and  of  expending  continu- 
ously money  and  men  for  its  repression.  The  prohibitions 
of  maltreating  the  Jew,  which  are  constantly  recurring  in 
the  imperial  ordinances,  show  that  those  words  of  the 
cultured  were  translated,  as  might  be  expected,  by  their 
inferiors  into  deeds.  The  Jews,  on  their  part,  did  not 
mend  the  matter.  They  turned  away  from  Hellenic  liter- 
ature, which  was  now  regarded  ars  polluting,  and  even  re- 
belled against  the  use  of  the  Greek  translation  of  the 
Bible  ;  the  ever-increasing  purification  of  faith  turned  not 


Chap.  XL]  Judaea  and  the  Jews.  251 


merely  against  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  but  quite  as 
much  against  the  *'  half  Jews  "  of  Samaria  and  against  the 
Christian  heretics  ;  the  reverence  toward  the  letter  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  rose  to  a  giddy  height  of  absurdity,  and 
above  all  an — if  possible — still  holier  tradition  established 
itself,  in  the  fetters  of  which  all  life  and  thought  were 
benumbed.  The  gulf  between  that  treatise  on  the  Sub- 
lime which  ventures  to  place  Homer's  Poseidon  shaking 
land  and  sea  and  Jehovah,  who  creates  the  shining  sun, 
side  by  side,  and  the  beginnings  of  the  Talmud  which  be- 
long to  this  epoch,  marks  the  contrast  between  the  Juda- 
ism of  the  first  and  that  of  the  third  century.  The  living 
together  of  Jews  and  non-Jews  showed  itself  more  and 
more  to  be  just  as  inevitable,  as  under  the  given  conditions 
it  was  intolerable ;  the  contrast  in  faith,  law,  and  manners 
became  sharpened,  and  mutual  arrogance  and  mutual 
hatred  operated  on  both  sides  with  morally  disorganising 
effect.  Not  merely  was  their  conciliation  not  promoted  in 
these  centuries,  but  its  realisation  was  always  thrown 
further  into  the  distance,  the  more  its  necessity  was  ap- 
parent. This  exasperation,  this  arrogance,  this  contempt, 
as  they  became  established  at  that  time,  were  indeed  only 
the  inevitable  growth  of  a  perhaps  not  less  inevitable  sow- 
ing ;  but  the  heritage  of  these  times  is  still  at  the  present 
day  a  burden  on  mankind. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


EGYPT. 

The  two  kingdoms  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  which  had  so 
long  striven  and  vied  with  each  other  in  every 
of^E|ypt^^**^°^  respect,  fell  nearly  about  the  same  time  with- 
out resistance  into  the  power  of  the  Romans. 
If  these  made  no  use  of  the  alleged  or  real  testament  of 
Alexander  11.  (f  673)  and  did  not  then  annex 
the  land,  the  last  rulers  of  the  Lagid  house 
were  confessedly  in  the  position  of  clients  of  Rome  ;  the 
senate  decided  in  disputes  as  to  the  throne,  and  after  the 
Roman  governor  of  Syria,  Aulus  Gabinius,  had  with  his 
troops  brought  back  the  king  Ptolemaeus  Auletes  to  Egypt 
(699  ;  comp.  iv.  189),  the  Roman  legions  did 
not  again  leave  the  land.     Like  the  other 
client-kings,  the  rulers  of  Egypt  took  part  in  the  civil  wars 
on  the  summons  of  the  government  recognised  by  them  or 
rather  imposing  itself  on  them  ;  and,  if  it  must  remain  un- 
decided what  part  Antonius  in  the  fanciful  eastern  empire 
of  his  dreams  had  destined  for  the  native  land  of  the  wife 
whom  he  loved  too  well  (p.  27),  at  any  rate  the  govern- 
ment of  Antonius  in  Alexandria,  as  well  as  the  last  strug- 
gle in  the  last  civil  war  before  the  gates  of  that  city,  be- 
longs as  little  to  the  special  history  of  Egypt  as  the  battle 
of  Actium  to  that  of  Epirus.    But  doubtless  this  catas- 
trophe, and  the  death  connected  with  it  of  the  last  prince 
of  the  Lagid  house,  gave  occasion  for  Augustus  not  to  fill 
up  again  the  vacant  throne,  but  to  take  the  kingdom  of 
Egypt  under  his  own  administration.    This  annexation 
of  the  last  portion  of  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  to  the 
sphere  of  direct  Roman  administration,  and  the  settle- 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


253 


meat,  coincident  with  it  in  point  of  time  and  of  organic 
connection,  of  the  new  monarchy,  mark — as  regards  the 
constitution  and  administration  of  the  huge  empire  respec- 
tively— the  turning-point,  the  end  of  the  old  and  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  epoch. 

The  incorporation  of  Egypt  into  the  Eoman  empire  was 
accomplished  after  an  abnormal  fashion,  in  so 

Egypt  exclusive-  •      •   i  it,  i       •  j.- 

ly  an  imperial  lar  as  the  prmciplc — elsewhcre  clommatmg 
posbession.  state — of  dyarchy,  i.e.  of  the  joint  rule  of 

the  two  supreme  imperial  powers,  the  princeps  and  the 
senate,  found — apart  from  some  subordinate  districts — no 
application  in  Egypt  alone  ;^  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  this 
land  the  senate  as  such,  as  well  as  every  individual  of  its 
members,  were  cut  off  from  all  participation  in  the  gov- 
ernment, and  indeed  senators  and  persons  of  senatorial 
rank  were  even  prohibited  from  setting  foot  in  this  prov- 
ince.^ We  may  not  apprehend  this  possibly  as  if  Egypt 
were  connected  with  the  rest  of  the  empire  only  by  a  per- 
sonal union  ;  the  princeps  is,  according  to  the  meaning 
and  spirit  of  the  Augustan  organisation,  an  integral  and 
permanently  acting  element  of  the  Roman  polity  just  like 
the  senate,  and  his  rule  over  Egypt  is  quite  as  much  a  part 

^  This  exclusion  of  the  joint  rule  of  the  senate  as  of  the  senators 
is  indicated  by  Tacitus  [Hist.  i.  11)  with  the  words  that  Augustus 
wished  to  have  Egypt  administered  exclusively  by  his  personal  ser- 
vants retinere ;  comp.  Staatsrecht,  ii.  p.  963),  In  principle 
this  abnormal  form  of  government  was  applicable  for  all  the  prov- 
inces not  administered  by  senators,  the  presidents  of  which  were 
also  at  the  outset  called  chie^y  praefecti  {C.  I.  L.  v.  p.  809,  902). 
But  at  the  first  division  of  the  provinces  between  emperor  and  sen- 
ate there  was  probably  no  other  of  these  but  just  Egypt  ;  and  sub- 
sequently the  distinction  here  came  into  sharper  prominence,  in  so 
far  as  all  the  other  provinces  of  this  category  obtained  no  legions. 
For  in  the  emergence  of  the  equestrian  commandants  of  the  legion 
instead  of  the  senatorial,  as  was  the  rule  in  Egypt,  the  exclusion  of 
the  senatorial  government  finds  its  most  palpable  expression. 

^  This  ordinance  holds  only  for  Egypt,  not  for  the  other  territo- 
ries administered  by  non  senators.  How  essential  it  appeared  to  the 
government,  we  see  from  the  constitutional  and  religious  apparatus 
called  into  recjuisition  to  secure  it  {Trig.  tyr.  c.  22). 


254 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


of  the  imperial  rule  as  is  the  rule  of  the  proconsul  of  Africa.' 
We  may  rather  illustrate  the  position  of  the  case  in  state- 
law  by  saying  that  the  British  Empire  would  find  itself  in 
the  same  plight  if  the  ministry  and  Parliament  should  be 
taken  into  account  only  for  the  mother-land,  whereas  the 
colonies  should  have  to  obey  the  absolute  government  of 
the  Empress  of  India.  What  motives  determined  the  new 
monarch  at  the  very  outset  of  his  sole  rule  to  adopt  this 
deeply  influential  and  at  no  time  assailed  arrangement, 
and  how  it  affected  the  general  political  relations,  are  mat- 
ters belonging  to  the  general  history  of  the  empire  ;  here 
we  have  to  set  forth  how  the  internal  relations  of  Egypt 
shaped  themselves  under  the  imperial  rule. 

What  held  true  in  general  of  all  Hellenic  or  Hellenised 
territories — that  the  Komans,  when  annexing  them  to  the 
empire,  preserved  the  once  existing  institutions,  and  in- 
troduced modifications  only  where  these  seemed  abso- 
lutely necessary — found  application  in  its  full  compass 
to  Egypt. 

Like  Syria,  Egypt,  when  it  became  Eoman,  was  a  land 
of  twofold  nationality  ;  here  too  alongside  of,  and  over, 
the  native  stood  the  Greek — the  former  the  slave,  the  lat- 
ter the  master.  But  in  law  and  in  fact  the  relations  of  the 
two  nations  in  Egypt  were  wholly  different  from  those  of 
Syria. 

Syria,  substantially  already  in  the  pre-Eoman  and  en- 
tirely in  the  Koman  epoch,  came  under  the 
EgypUaS  towns,  government  of  the  land  only  after  an  indirect 
manner  ;  it  was  broken  up,  partly  into  prin- 
cipalities, partly  into  autonomous  urban  districts,  and  was 
administered,  in  the  first  instance,  by  the  rulers  of  the 

'  The  current  assertion  that  provincia  is  onlj^  by  an  abuse  of  lan- 
guage put  for  the  districts  not  administered  by  senators  is  not  well 
founded.  Egypt  was  private  property  of  the  emperor  just  as  much 
or  just  as  little  as  Gaul  and  Syria— yet  Augustus  himself  says  {Mon. 
Ancyr.  5,  24)  :  Aegyptum  imperio  popuU  Romani  adied,  and  assigns 
to  the  governor,  since  he  aseques  could  not  loe  pi'o  praetors,  by  spe- 
cial law  the  same  jurisdiction  in  processes  as  the  Roman  praetors 
had  (Tacitus,  Ann.  xii.  60), 


Chap.  XII.]  Egyjpt.  255 

land  or  municipal  authorities.  In  Egypt,'  on  the  other 
hand,  there  were  neither  native  princes  nor  imperial  cities 
after  the  Greek  fashion.  The  two  spheres  of  administra- 
tion into  which  Egypt  was  divided — the  "  land  "  (17  x^pa) 
of  the  Egyptians,  with  its  originally  thirty-six  districts 
(vo/Aot),  and  the  two  Greek  cities,  Alexandria  in  lower  and 
Ptolemais  in  upper  Egypt  ^ — were  rigidly  separated  and 
sharply  opposed  to  each  other,  and  yet  in  a  strict  sense 
hardly  different.  The  rural,  like  the  urban,  district  was 
not  merely  marked  off  territorially,  but  the  former  as  well 
as  the  latter  was  a  home-district  ;  the  belonging  to  each 
was  independent  of  dwelling-place  and  hereditary.  The 
Egyptian  from  the  Chemmitic  nome  belonged  to  it  with 
his  dependents,  just  as  much  when  he  had  his  abode  in 
Alexandria  as  the  Alexandrian  dwelling  in  Chemmis  be- 
longed to  the  burgess-body  of  Alexandria.  The  land-dis- 
trict had  for  its  centre  always  an  urban  settlement,  the 
Chemmitic,  for  example,  the  town  of  Panopolis,  which 
grew  up  round  the  temple  of  Chemmis  or  of  Pan,  or,  as 
this  is  expressed  in  the  Greek  mode  of  conception,  each 
nome  had  its  metropolis  ;  so  far  each  land-district  may  be 
regarded  also  as  a  town-district.  Like  the  cities,  the 
nomes  also  became  in  the  Christian  epoch  the  basis  of  the 
episcopal  dioceses.  The  land-districts  were  based  on  the 
arrangements  for  worship  which  dominated  everything  in 
Egypt ;  the  centre  for  each  one  is  the  sanctuary  of  a  defi- 
nite deity,  and  usually  it  bears  the  name  of  this  deity  or  of 
the  animal  sacred  to  the  same  ;  thus  the  Chemmitic  dis- 
trict is  called  after  the  god  Chemmis,  or,  according  to 
Greek  equivalent.  Pan  ;  other  districts  after  the  dog,  the 

1  As  a  matter  of  course  what  is  here  meant  is  the  land  of  Egypt, 
not  the  possessions  subject  to  the  Lagids.  Cyrene  was  similarly  or- 
ganised (p.  179).  But  the  properly  Egyptian  government  was  never 
applied  to  southern  Syria  and  to  the  otlier  territories  which  were  for 
a  longer  or  a  shorter  time  under  the  power  of  Egypt. 

To  these  falls  to  be  added  Naucratis,  the  oldest  Greek  town  al- 
ready founded  in  Egypt  before  the  Ptolemies,  and  further  Parae- 
tonium,  which  indeed  in  some  measure  lies  beyond  the  bounds  of 
Egypt. 


256 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


lion,  the  crocodile.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  town- 
districts  are  not  without  their  religious  centre ;  the  pro- 
tecting god  of  Alexandria  is  Alexander,  the  protecting  god 
of  Ptolemais  the  first  Ptolemy,  and  the  priests,  who  are 
installed  in  the  one  place  as  in  the  other  for  this  worship 
and  that  of  their  successors,  are  the  Eponymi  for  both 
cities.  The  land-district  is  quite  destitute  of  autonomy  : 
administration,  taxation,  justice,  are  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  royal  officials,^  and  the  collegiate  system,  the  Pal- 
ladium of  the  Greek  as  of  the  Roman  commonwealth,  was 
here  in  all  stages  absolutely  excluded.  But  in  the  two 
Greek  cities  it  was  not  much  otherwise.  There  was  doubt- 
less a  body  of  burgesses  divided  into  phylae  and  demes, 
but  no  common  council  f  the  officials  were  doubtless  dif- 

'  There  was  not  wanting  of  course  a  certain  joint  action,  similar  to 
that  which  is  exercised  by  the  regiones  and  the  lici  of  self-adminis- 
tering urban  communities ;  to  this  category  belongs  what  we  meet 
with  of  agoranomy  and  gymnasiarchy  in  the  nomes,  as  also  the  erec- 
tion of  honorary  memorials  and  the  like,  all  of  which,  we  may  add, 
make  their  appearance  only  to  a  small  extent  and  for  the  most  part 
but  late.  According  to  the  edict  of  Alexander  {G.  I.  Gr.  4957,  1. 
34)  the  strategoi  do  not  seem  to  have  been,  properly  speaking,  nom- 
inated by  the  governor,  but  only  to  have  been  confirmed  after  an 
examination  ;  we  do  not  know  who  had  the  proposing  of  them. 

'■^  The  position  of  matters  is  clearly  apparent  in  the  inscription  set 
up  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Pius  to  the  well-known  orator 
Aristides  by  the  Egyptian  Greeks  (0.  /.  Gr.  4679)  ;  as  dedicants  are 
named  ri  it6Xls  tu>v  'AX^^avSpecov  Kol  'EpfjLOimoKis  7]  fieydAr}  Kal  t]  fiov\^  rj 
^Avtlvo4cdV  feccy  'EXX'fjvwv  KoL  oi  iu  rcf  AeAra  Trjs  Alyvirrov  KoX  ^ol  rhv 
GrilSaiKhv  vo/xhv  olKovyres  "EAAtjvcs.  Thus  only  Antinoopolis,  the  city 
of  the  "new  Hellenes,"  has  a  Boule  ;  Alexandria  appears  without 
this,  but  as  a  Greek  city  in  the  aggregate.  Moreover  there  take 
part  in  this  dedication  the  Greeks  living  in  the  Delta  and  those  liv- 
ing in  Thebes,  but  of  the  Egyptian  towns  Great-Hermopolis  alone, 
on  which  probably  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Antinoopolis  has  ex- 
ercised an  influence.  To  Ptolemais  Strabo  (xvii,  1,  42,  p.  813)  at- 
tributes a  a-uarrjixa  troXiriKhv  iu  rep  'EWrjVLK^  Tp6ir(f\  but  in  this  we  may 
hardly  think  of  more  than  what  belonged  to  the  capital  according  to 
its  constitution  more  exactly  known  to  us — and  so  specially  of  the 
division  of  the  burgesses  into  phylae.  That  the  pre-Ptolemaic  Greek 
city  Naucratis  retained  in  the  Ptolemaic  time  the  Boule,  which  it 
doubtless  had,  is  possible,  but  cannot  be  decisive  for  the  Ptolemaio 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt 


267 


ferent  and  differently  named  from  those  of  the  nomes,  but 
were  also  throughout  officials  of  royal  nomination  and 
likewise  without  collegiate  arrangement.  Hadrian  was 
the  first  to  give  to  an  Egyptian  township,  Antinoopolis, 
laid  out  by  him  in  memory  of  his  favourite  drowned  in 
the  Nile,  urban  rights  according  to  the  Greek  fashion ; 
and  subsequently  Severus,  perhaps  as  much  out  of  spite 
to  the  Antiochenes  as  for  the  benefit  of  the  Egyptians, 
granted  to  the  capital  of  Egypt  and  to  the  town  of  Ptol- 
emais,  and  to  several  other  Egyptian  communities,  not 
urban  magistrates  indeed,  but  at  any  rate  an  urban  coun- 
cil. Hitherto,  doubtless,  in  official  language  the  Egyptian 
town  calls  itself  Nomos,  the  Greek  Polis,  but  a  Polis  with- 
out Archontes  and  Bouleutae  is  a  meaningless  name.  So 
was.  it  also  in  the  coinage.  The  Egyptian  nomes  did  not 
possess  the  right  of  coining  ;  but  still  less  did  Alexandria 
ever  strike  coins.  Egypt  is,  among  all  the  provinces  of 
the  Greek  half  of  the  empire,  the  only  one  which  knows 
no  other  than  royal  money.  Nor  was  this  otherwise  even 
in  the  Roman  period.  The  emperors  abolished  the  abuses 
that  crept  in  under  the  last  Lagids  ;  Augustus  set  aside 
their  unreal  copper  coinage,  and  when  Tiberius  resumed 
the  coinage  of  silver  he  gave  to  the  Egyptian  silver  money 
just  as  real  value  as  to  the  other  provincial  currency  of  the 
empire. '  But  the  character  of  the  coinage  remained  sub- 
arrangements. — Dio's  statement  (ii.  17)  that  Augustus  left  the  other 
Egyptian  towns  with  their  existing  organisation,  but  took  the  com- 
mon council  from  the  Alexandrians  on  account  of  their  untrust- 
worthiness,  rests  doubtless  on  misunderstanding,  the  more  espe- 
cially as,  according  to  it,  Alexandria  appears  slighted  in  comparison 
with  the  other  Egyptian  communities,  which  is  not  at  all  in  keeping 
with  probability. 

'  The  Egyptian  coining  of  gold  naturally  ceased  with  the  annex- 
ation of  the  land,  for  there  was  in  the  Roman  empire  only  imperial 
gold.  With  the  silver  also  Augustus  dealt  in  like  manner,  and  as 
ruler  of  Egypt  caused  simply  copper  to  be  struck,  and  even  this 
only  in  moderate  quantities.  At  first  Tiberius  coined,  after  27-28 
A.D.,  silver  money  for  Egyptian  circulation,  apparently  as  token- 
money,  as  the  pieces  correspond  nearly  in  point  of  weight  to  four, 
in  point  of  silver  value  to  one,  of  the  Roman  denarius  (Feuardent, 
Vol.  II.— 17 


258 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


stantially  the  same/  There  is  a  distinction  between  No- 
mos  and  Polis  as  between  the  god  Chemmis  and  the  god 
Alexander  ;  in  an  administrative  respect  there  is  not  any 
difference.  Egypt  consisted  of  a  majority  of  Egyptian  and 
of  a  minority  of  Greek  townships,  all  of  which  were  des- 
titute of  autonomy,  and  all  were  placed  under  the  imme- 
diate and  absolute  administration  of  the  king  and  of  the 
officials  nominated  by  him. 

It  was  a  consequence  of  this,  that  Egypt  alone  of  all  the 
Eoman  provinces  had  no  general  representa- 
ilnd-dilt  *  *  tion.  The  diet  is  the  collective  representation 
of  the  self -administering  communities  of  the 
province.  But  in  Egypt  there  was  none  such  ;  the  nomes 
were  simply  imperial  or  rather  royal  administrative  dis- 
tricts, and  Alexandria  not  merely  stood  virtually  alone,  but 
w^as  likewise  without  proper  municipal  organisation.  The 
priest  standing  at  the  head  of  the  capital  of  the  country 
might  doubtless  call  himself  "  chief  priest  of  Alexandria 
and  all  Egypt "  (p.  269,  note),  and  has  a  certain  resem- 
blance to  the  Asiarch  and  the  Bithyniarch  of  Asia  Minor, 
but  the  deep  diversity  of  the  organisations  is  thereby  sim- 
ply concealed. 

The  rule  bore  accordingly  in  Egypt  a  far  different  char- 
acter than  in  the  rest  of  the  domain  of  Greek  and  Roman 

Numismatique,  Egypte  ancienne^  ii.  p.  xi.).  But  as  in  legal  currency 
the  Alexandrian  drachma  was  estimated  as  obolus  (consequently  as 
a  sixth,  not  as  a  fourth  ;  comp.  Rom  Munzwesen,  p.  43,  723)  of  the 
Roman  denarius  {Rer7nes,  v.  p.  136),  and  the  provincial  silver  al- 
ways lost  as  compared  with  the  imperial  silver,  the  Alexandrian  te- 
tradraclimon  of  the  silver  value  of  a  denarius  has  rather  been  esti- 
mated at  the  current  value  of  two-thirds  of  a  denarius.  According- 
ly down  to  Commodus,  from  whose  time  the  Alexandrian  tetra- 
drachmon  is  essentially  a  copper  coin,  the  same  has  been  quite  as 
much  a  coin  of  value  as  the  Syrian  tetradrachmon  and  the  Cappa- 
docian  drachma  ;  they  only  left  to  the  former  the  old  name  and  the 
old  weight. 

'  That  the  emperor  Hadrian,  among  other  Egyptising  caprices, 
gave  to  the  nomes  as  well  as  to  his  Antinoopolis  for  once  the  right 
of  coining,  which  was  thereupon  done  subsequently  on  a  couple  of 
occasions,  makes  no  alteration  in  the  rule. 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egy^pt. 


259 


civilisation  embraced  under  the  imperial  government.  In 
the  latter  the  community  administers  through- 
ofthf Tlagkis.^"*  5  ruler  of  the  empire  is,  strictly  taken, 
only  the  common  president  of  the  numerous 
more  or  less  autonomous  bodies  of  burgesses,  and  along- 
side of  the  advantages  of  self-administration  its  disadvan- 
tages and  dangers  everywhere  appear.  In  Egypt  the  ruler 
is  king,  the  inhabitant  of  the  land  is  his  subject,  the  ad- 
ministration that  of  a  domain.  This  administration,  in 
principle  as  haughtily  and  absolutely  conducted  as  it  was 
directed  to  the  equal  welfare  of  all  subjects  without  dis- 
tinction of  rank  and  of  estate,  was  the  peculiarity  of  the 
Lagid  government,  developed  probably  more  from  the 
Hellenising  of  the  old  Pharaonic  rule  than  from  the  urban 
organisation  of  the  universal  empire,  as  the  great  Mace- 
donian had  conceived  it,  and  as  it  was  most  completely 
carried  out  in  the  Syrian  New-Macedonia  (p.  132).  The 
system  required  a  king  not  merely  leading  the  army  in  his 
own  person,  but  engaged  in  the  daily  labour  of  adminis- 
tration, a  developed  and  strictly  disciplined  hierarchy  of  offi- 
cials, scrupulous  justice  towards  high  and  low ;  and  as  these 
rulers,  not  altogether  without  ground,  ascribed  to  themselves 
the  name  of  benefactor  (e^epyer^;?),  so  the  monarchy  of  the 
Lagids  may  be  compared  with  that  of  Frederick,  from  which 
it  was  in  its  principles  not  far  removed.  Certainly  Egypt 
had  also  experienced  the  reverse  side,  the  inevitable  collapse 
of  the  system  in  incapable  hands.  But  the  standard  re- 
mained ;  and  the  Augustan  principate  alongside  of  the  rule 
of  the  senate  was  nothing  but  the  intermarriage  of  the  Lagid 
government  with  the  old  urban  and  federal  development. 
A  further  consequence  of  this  form  of  government  was 
^  the  undoubted  superiority,  more  especially 

hnperia? admin-  from  a  financial  poiut  of  view,  of  the  Egyptian 
istration.  administration  over  that  of  the  other  prov- 
inces. We  may  designate  the  pre-Koman  epoch  as  the 
struggle  of  the  financially  dominant  power  of  Egypt  with 
the  Asiatic  empire,  filling,  so  far  as  space  goes,  the  rest  of 
the  East ;  under  the  Boman  period  this  was  continued  in  a 


260 


[Book  VIII. 


certain  sense  in  tlie  fact  that  the  imperial  finances  stood 
forth  superior  in  contrast  to  those  of  the  senate,  especially 
through  the  exclusive  possession  of  Egypt.  If  it  is  the 
aim  of  the  state  to  work  out  the  utmost  possible  amount 
from  its  territory,  in  the  old  world  the  Lagids  were  absolute- 
ly the  masters  of  statecraft.  In  particular  they  were  in  this 
sphere  the  instructors  and  the  models  of  the  Caesars.  How 
much  the  Romans  drew  out  of  Egypt  we  are  not  able  to 
say  with  precision.  In  the  Persian  period  Egypt  had  paid 
an  annual  tribute  of  700  Babylonish  talents  of  silver,  about 
£200,000  ;  the  annual  income  of  the  Ptolemies  from  Egypt, 
or  rather  from  their  possessions  generally,  amounted  in 
their  most  brilliant  period  to  14,800  Egyptian  silver  tal- 
ents, or  £2,850,000,  and  besides  1,500,000  artabae  = 
591,000  hectolitres  of  wheat ;  at  the  end  of  their  rule  fully 
6,000  talents,  or  £1,250,000.  The  Romans  drew  from 
Egypt  annually  the  third  part  of  the  corn  necessary  for  the 
consumption  of  Rome,  20,000,000  Roman  bushels  '  — 
1,740,000  hectolitres  ;  a  part  of  it,  however,  was  certainly 
derived  from  the  domains  proper,  another  perhaps  supplied 
in  return  for  compensation,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Egyptian  tribute  was  assessed,  at  least  for  a  great  part,  in 
money,  so  that  we  are  not  in  a  position  even  approximately 
to  determine  the  Egyptian  income  of  the  Roman  ex- 
chequer. But  not  merely  by  its  amount  was  it  of  decisive 
importance  for  the  Roman  state-economy,  but  because  it 
served  as  a  pattern  in  the  first  instance  for  the  domanial 
possessions  of  the  emperors  in  the  other  provinces,  and 
generally  for  the  whole  imperial  administration,  as  this 
falls  to  be  explained  when  we  set  it  forth. 

1  This  figure  is  given  by  the  so-called  Epitome  of  Victor,  c.  1,  for 
the  time  of  Augustus.  After  this  payment  was  transferred  to  Con- 
stantinople there  went  thither  under  Justinian  {Ed.  xiii.  c.  8)  an- 
nually 8,000,000  artabae  (for  these  are  to  be  understood,  according 
to  c.  6,  as  meant\  or  26f  millions  of  Roman  bushels  (Hultscli, 
Metrol.  p.  628),  to  which  falls  further  to  be  added  the  similar  pay- 
ment to  the  town  of  Alexandria,  introduced  by  Diocletian.  To  the 
shipmasters  for  the  freight  to  Constantinople  8,000  solidi  =  £5,000 
were  annually  paid  from  the  state -chest. 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egypt. 


261 


But  if  the  communal  self-administration  had  no  place  in 
Effypt,  and  in  this  respect  a  real  diversity' 

Privileged  posi-  ^  '  •   ,    ,     ,  x  % 

tion  of  the  Hei-  docs  not  cxist  Dctwecn  the  two  nations  oi 
which  this  state,  just  like  the  Syrian,  was  com- 
posed, there  was  in  another  respect  a  barrier  erected  be- 
tween them,  to  which  Syria  offers  no  parallel.  According 
to  the  arrangement  of  the  Macedonian  conquerors,  the  be- 
longing to  an  Egyptian  locality  disqualified  for  all  public 
offices  and  for  the  better  military  service.  Where  the  state 
made  gifts  to  its  burgesses  these  were  restricted  to  those 
of  the  Greek  communities  on  the  other  hand,  the  Egyp- 
tians only  paid  the  poll-tax  ;  and  even  from  the  municipal 
burdens,  which  fell  on  the  settlers  of  the  individual  Egyp- 
tian district,  the  Alexandrians  settled  there  were  exempted.^ 
Although  in  the  case  of  trespass  the  back  of  the  Egyptian 
as  of  the  Alexandrian  had  to  suffer,  the  latter  might  boast, 
and  did  boast,  that  the  cane  struck  him,  and  not  the  lash, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  former.  ^  Even  the  acquiring  of  bet- 
ter burgess-rights  was  forbidden  to  the  Egyptians."  The 

^  At  least  Cleopatra  on  a  distribution  of  grain  in  Alexandria  ex- 
cluded the  Jews  (Joseplius,  contra  Ap.  ii.  5),  and  all  the  more,  con- 
sequently, the  Egyptians. 

2  The  edict  of  Alexander  {C.  I.  Gr.  4957),  1.  33  ff.,  exempts  the 
ivy^v€LS  'AAe|a?/§per?  dwelling  iv  ry  X^P^  (j^^^  '^V  ""oAet)  on  account 
of  their  business  from  the  K^novpy'iai  x^pf^aL 

^  "There  subsist,"  says  the  Alexandrian  Jew  Philo  (in  Mace.  10), 
"  as  respects  corporal  chastisement  (tuu  iiacrriycau)^  distinctions  in  our 
city  according  to  the  rank  of  those  to  be  chastised ;  the  Egyptians 
are  chastised  with  different  scourges  and  by  others,  but  the  Alexandri- 
ans with  canes  (crTra^at? ;  <nrd6r]  is  the  stem  of  the  palm-leaf),  and  by  the 
Alexandrian  cane-bearers"  {(rTradr}(p6poi,  perhaps  baciUarius).  He 
afterwards  complains  bitterly  that  the  elders  of  his  community,  if  they 
were  to  be  scourged  at  all,  should  not  have  been  provided  at  least  with 
decorous  burgess-lashes  (rals  iKevdepiwrepaLs  koI  iroXiTiKwr^pais  ixdcni^tv). 

^  Josephus,  contra  Aj).  ii.  4,  jxSvois  Alyvirriois  ol  Kvpioi  vvv  'Vasfiaiot 
Tr\s  olKov/j.ei/T]9  /jLeraXafilBdueiv  ricTTivocrovv  TroXireias  cnreipT^Kacriv.  6,  Ae^ 
gyptiis  neque  regum  quisquam  mdetur  ius  civitatisfuisse  largitus  neque 
nunc  qnilibet  imperatorum  (comp.  Bph.  epigr.  v.  p.  13).  The  same 
upbraids  his  adversary  (ii.  3,  4)  that  he,  a  native  Egyptian,  had  de- 
nied his  home  and  given  himself  out  as  an  Alexandrian. — Individual 
exceptions  are  not  thereby  excluded. 


262 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


burgess-lists  of  the  two  large  Greek  towns  organised  by 
and  named  after  the  two  founders  of  the  empire  in  lower 
and  upper  Egypt  embraced  in  them  the  ruling  population, 
and  the  possession  of  the  franchise  of  one  of  these  towns 
was  in  the  Egypt  of  the  Ptolemies  the  same  as  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Roman  franchise  was  in  the  Roman  empire. 
What  Aristotle  recommended  to  Alexander — to  be  a  ruler 
{rjyefjiwv)  to  the  Hellenes  and  a  master  to  the  barbarians,  to 
provide  for  the  former  as  friends  and  comrades,  to  use  the 
latter  like  animals  and  plants — the  Ptolemies  practically 
carried  out  in  all  its  extent.  The  king,  greater  and  more 
free  than  his  instructor,  carried  in  his  mind  the  higher 
idea  of  transforming  the  barbarians  into  Hellenes,  or  at 
least  of  replacing  the  barbarian  settlements  by  Hellenic, 
and  to  this  idea  his  successors  almost  everywhere,  and  par- 
ticularly in  Syria,  allowed  ample  scope. '  In  Egypt  this 
was  not  the  case.  Doubtless  its  ruler  sought  to  keep 
touch  with  the  natives,  particularly  in  the  religious  sphere, 
and  wished  not  to  rule  as  Greeks  over  the  Egyptians,  but 
rather  as  earthly  gods  over  their  subjects  in  common ;  but 
with  this  the  inequality  of  rights  on  the  part  of  the  sub- 
jects was  quite  compatible,  just  as  the  preference  de  iure 
and  de  facto  of  the  nobility  was  quite  as  essential  a  part  of 
the  government  of  Frederick  as  the  equality  of  justice  to- 
wards gentle  and  simple. 

As  the  Romans  in  the  East  generally  continued  the  work 
of  the  Greeks,  so  the  exclusion  of  the  native 
leges  in  the  Eo-  Egyptians  from  the  acquiring  of  Greek  citizen- 
man  period.  ^-j^^p  merely  continued  to  subsist,  but  was 
extended  to  the  Roman  citizenship.  The  Egyptian  Greek, 
on  the  other  hand,  might  acquire  the  latter  just  like  any 

^  Alexandrian  science,  too,  protested  in  the  sense  of  the  king 
against  this  proposition  (Plutarch,  de  fort  Alex.  i.  6);  Eratosthenes 
designated  civilisation  as  not  peculiar  to  the  Hellenes  alone,  and  not 
to  be  denied  to  all  barbarians,  e.g.  not  to  the  Indians,  the  Arians, 
the  Romans,  the  Carthaginians;  men  were  rather  to  be  divided  into 
"good"  and  ''bad"  (Strabo,  i.  fin.  p.  66).  But  of  this  theory  no 
practical  application  was  made  to  the  Egyptian  race  even  under  the 
LagidSi 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt 


263 


other  non -burgess.  Entrance  to  the  senate,  it  is  true,  was 
as  httle  allowed  to  him  as  to  the  Koman  burgess  from 
Gaul  (p.  89),  and  this  restriction  remained  much  longer  in 
force  for  Egypt  than  for  Gaul ; '  it  was  not  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century  that  it  was  disregarded  in  iso- 
lated cases,  and  it  held  good,  as  a  rule,  even  in  the  fifth. 
In  Egypt  itself  the  positions  of  the  upper  officials,  that  is, 
of  those  acting  for  the  whole  province,  and  likewise  the 
officers'  posts,  were  reserved  for  Roman  citizens  in  the 
form  of  the  knight's  horse  being  required  as-  a  qualifica- 
tion for  them  ;  this  was  given  by  the  general  organisation 
of  the  empire,  and  similar  privileges  had  in  fact  been  pos- 
sessed in  Egypt  by  the  Macedonians  in  contrast  to  the 
other  Greeks.  The  offices  of  the  second  rank  remained 
under  the  Eoman  rule,  as  previously,  closed  to  the  Egyp- 
tian Egyptians,  and  were  filled  with  Greeks,  primarily 
with  the  burgesses  of  Alexandria  and  Ptolemais.  If  in  the 
imperial  war-service  for  the  first  class  Roman  citizenship 
was  required,  they,  at  any  rate  in  the  case  of  the  legions 
stationed  in  Egypt  itself,  not  seldom  admitted  the  Egyp- 
tian Greek  on  the  footing  that  Roman  citizenship  was  con- 
ferred on  him  upon  occasion  of  the  levy.  For  the  cate- 
gory of  auxiliary  troops  the  admission  of  the  Greeks  was 
subject  to  no  limitation  ;  but  the  Egyptians  were  little  or 
not  at  all  employed  for  this  purpose,  while  they  were  em- 
ployed afterwards  in  considerable  number  for  the  lowest 
class,  the  naval  force  still  in  the  first  imperial  times  formed 
of  slaves.  In  the  course  of  time  the  slighting  of  the  na- 
tive Egyptians  doubtless  had  its  rigour  relaxed,  and  they 
more  than  once  attained  to  Greek,  and  by  means  of  it 
also  to  Roman,  citizenship  ;  but  on  the  whole  the  Roman 
government  was  simply  the  continuation,  as  of  the  Greek 
rule,  so  also  of  the  Greek  exclusiveness.    As  the  Macedo- 

'  Admission  to  the  equestrian  positions  was  at  least  rendered  diffi- 
cult :  non  est  ex  albo  index patre  Aegyptio  {C.  I.  L.  iv.  1943  ;  comp. 
Staatsredit,  ii.  919,  note  2 ;  Eph.  epirjr.  v.  p.  13,  note  2).  Yet  we 
meet  early  with  individual  Alexandrians  in  equestrian  offices,  like 
Tiberius  Julius  Alexander  (p.  267,  note). 


264 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


nian  government  had  contented  itself  with  Alexandria  and 
Ptolemais,  so  in  this  province  alone  the  Komans  did  not 
found  a  single  colony/ 

The  linguistic  arrangement  in  Egypt  remained  essen- 
tially under  the  Komans  as  the  Ptolemies  had 
guag^'^"'  settled  it.  Apart  from  the  military,  among 
whom  the  Latin  alone  prevailed,  the  business- 
language  for  the  intercourse  of  the  upper  posts  was  the 
Greek.  Of  the  native  language,  which,  radically  differ- 
ent from  the  Semitic  as  from  the  Arian  languages,  is 
most  nearly  akin  perhaps  to  that  of  the  Berbers  in  North 
Africa,  and  of  the  native  writing,  the  Koman  rulers  and 
their  governors  never  made  use  ;  and,  if  already  under  the 
Ptolemies  a  Greek  translation  had  to  be  appended  to  offi- 
cial documents  written  in  Egyptian,  at  least  the  same  held 
good  for  these  their  successors.  Certainly  the  Egyptians 
were  not  prohibited  from  making  use,  so  far  as  it  seemed 
requisite  according  to  ritual  or  otherwise  appropriate,  of 
the  native  language  and  of  its  time-hallowed  written  signs  ; 
in  this  old  home,  moreover,  of  the  use  of  writing  in  ordi- 
nary intercourse  the  native  language,  alone  familiar  to  the 
great  public,  and  the  usual  writing  must  necessarily  have 
been  allowed  not  merely  in  the  case  of  private  contracts, 
but  even  as  regards  tax-receipts  and  similar  documents. 
But  this  was  a  concession,  and  the  ruling  Hellenism  strove 
to  enlarge  its  domain.  The  effort  to  create  for  the  views 
and  traditions  prevailing  in  the  land  an  universally  valid 
expression  also  in  Greek  gave  an  extension  to  the  system 
of  double  names  in  Egypt  such  as  we  see  nowhere  else. 
All  Egyptian  gods  whose  names  were  not  themselves  cur- 
rent among  the  Greeks,  like  that  of  Isis,  were  equalised 
with  corresponding  or  else  not  corresponding  Greek  ones  ; 

1  If  the  words  of  Pliny  {H.  N.  v.  31,  128)  are  accurate,  that  the 
island  of  Pharos  before  the  harbour  of  Alexandria  was  a  colonia 
Caesaris  dictatoris  (comp.  iv.  574),  the  dictator  has  here  too,  like 
Alexander,  gone  beyond  the  thought  of  Aristotle.  But  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  point,  that  after  the  annexation  of  Egypt 
there  never  was  a  Roman  colony  tliere. 


\ 

Chap.  XII.] 


Egypt. 


265 


perhaps  the  half  of  the  townships  and  a  great  number  of 
persons  bore  as  well  a  native  as  a  Greek  appellation.  Grad- 
ually Hellenism  in  this  case  prevailed.  The  old  sacred 
writing  meets  us  on  the  preserved  monuments  last  under 
the  emperor  Decius  about  the  middle  of  the  third,  and  its 
more  current  degenerated  form  last  about  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century  ;  both  disappeared  from  common  use 
considerably  earlier.  The  neglect  and  the  decay  of  the 
native  elements  of  civilisation  are  expressed  in  these  facts. 
The  language  of  the  land  itself  maintained  its  ground  still 
for  long  afterwards  in  remote  places  and  in  the  lower 
ranks,  and  only  became  quite  extinct  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  after  it— the  language  of  the  Copts — had,  just 
like  the  Syriac,  experienced  in  the  later  imperial  period  a 
limited  regeneration  in  consequence  of  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  and  of  the  efforts  directed  to  the  produc- 
tion of  a  national-Christian  literature. 

In  the  government  the  first  thing  that  strikes  us  is  the 

suppression  of  the  court  and  of  its  residency, 
iresSdent^court.         uccessary  conscqueuce  of  the  annexation 

of  the  land  by  Augustus.  There  was  left 
doubtless  as  much  as  could  be  left.  On  the  inscriptions 
written  in  the  native  language,  and  so  merely  for  Egyp- 
tians, the  emperors  are  termed,  like  the  Ptolemies,  kings 
of  upper  and  lower  Egypt,  and  the  elect  of  the  Egyptian 
native  gods,  and  indeed  withal — which  was  not  the  case 
with  the  Ptolemies — great-kings.^    Dates  were  reckoned 

^  The  titles  of  Augustus  run  with  the  Egyptian  priests  to  the  fol- 
lowing effect  :  "  The  beautiful  boy,  lovely  through  worthiness  to  be 
loved;  the  prince  of  princes,  elect  of  Ptah  and  Nun  the  father  of  the 
gods,  king  of  upper  Egypt  and  king  of  lower  Egypt,  lord  of  the  two 
lands,  Autokrator,  son  of  the  sun,  lord  of  diadems,  Kaisar,  ever 
living,  beloved  by  Ptah  and  Isis  ; "  in  this  case  the  proper  names 
"Autokrator,  Kaisar,"  are  retained  from  the  Greek.  The  title  of 
Augustus  occurs  first  in  the  case  of  Tiberius  in  an  Egyptian  trans- 
lation {nti  xu),  and  with  the  retention  of  the  Greek  2e)8ao-T(Js  first 
under  Domitian.  The  title  of  the  fair,  lovely  boy,  which  in  better 
times  was  wont  to  be  given  only  to  the  children  proclaimed  as  joint- 
rulers,  afterwards  became  stereotyped,  and  is  found  employed,  as 


266 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


in  Egypt,  as  previously,  according  to  the  current  calendar 
of  the  country  and  its  royal  year  passing  over  to  the  Ro- 
man rulers ;  the  golden  cup  which  every  year  the  king 
threw  into  the  swelling  Nile  was  now  thrown  in  by  the 
Eoman  viceroy.  But  these  things  did  not  reach  far.  The 
Eoman  ruler  could  not  carry  out  the  part  of  the  Egyptian 
king,  which  was  incompatible  with  his  imperial  position. 
The  new  lord  of  the  land  had  unpleasant  experiences  in 
his  representation  by  a  subordinate  on  the  very  first  occa- 
sion of  his  sending  a  governor  to  Egypt  ;  the  able  oflQcer 
and  talented  poet,  who  had  not  been  able  to  refrain  from 
inscribing  his  name  also  on  the  Pyramids,  was  deposed  on 
that  account  and  thereby  ruined.  It  was  inevitable  that 
limits  should  here  be  set.  The  affairs,  the  transaction  of 
which  according  to  the  system  of  Alexander  devolved  on 
the  prince  personally  '  not  less  than  according  to  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  Roman  principate,  might  be  managed  by 
the  Roman  governor  as  by  the  native  king  ;  king  he  might 
neither  be  nor  seem.^  That  was  to  a  certainty  deeply  and 
severely  felt  in  the  second  city  of  the  world.  The  mere 
change  of  dynasty  would  not  have  told  so  very  heavily. 
But  a  court  like  that  of  the  Ptolemies,  regulated  according 
to  the  ceremonial  of  the  Pharaohs,  king  and  queen  in  their 
dress  as  gods,  the  pomp  of  festal  processions,  the  recep- 
tion of  the  priesthoods  and  of  ambassadors,  the  court-ban- 
quets, the  great  ceremonies  of  the  coronation,  of  the  taking 

for  Caesarion  and  Augustus,  so  also  for  Tiberius,  Claudius,  Titus, 
Domitian.  It  is  more  important  that  in  deviation  from  the  older 
title,  as  it  is  found,  e.g.  in  Greek  on  the  inscription  of  Rosetta  (C. 
I.  Gr.  4697),  in  the  case  of  the  Caesars  from  Augustus  onward  the 
title  "prince  of  princes"  is  appended,  by  which  beyond  doubt  it 
was  intended  to  express  their  position  of  great-king,  which  the  ear- 
lier kings  had  not. 

'  If  people  knew,  King  Seleucus  was  wont  to  say  (Plutarch,  An 
sent,  11),  what  a  burden  it  was  to  write  and  to  read  so  many  letters, 
they  would  not  take  up  the  diadem  if  it  lay  at  their  feet. 

^  That  he  wore  other  insignia  than  the  officers  generally  (Hirsch- 
feld,  Verw,  Gesch.  p.  271),  it  is  hardly  allowable  to  infer  from  vita 
Hadr.  4. 


^Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


267 


the  oath,  of  marriage,  of  burial,  the  court-offices  of  the 
bodyguards  and  the  chief  of  that  guard  (dpxto-w/>iaTo<^uA.a^), 
of  the  introducing  chamberlain  (eto-ayyeXe^;?),  of  the  chief 
master  of  the  table  {ap\^hia.Tpo<i),  of  the  chief  master  of 
the  huntsmen  (d/ax'-KWT^yo?),  the  cousins  and  friends  of  the 
king,  the  wearers  of  decorations— all  this  was  lost  for  the 
Alexandrians  once  for  all  with  the  transfer  of  the  seat  of 
the  ruler  from  the  Nile  to  the  Tiber.  Only  the  two  fa- 
mous Alexandrian  libraries  remained  there,  with  all  their 
belongings  and  staff,  as  a  remnant  of  the  old  regal  mag- 
nificence. Beyond  question  Egypt  lost  by  being  dispos- 
sessed of  its  rulers  very  much  more  than  Syria  ;  both 
nations  indeed  were  in  the  powerless  position  of  having 
to  acquiesce  in  what  was  contrived  for  them,  and  not  more 
here  than  there  was  a  rising  for  the  lost  position  of  a  great 
power  so  much  as  thought  of. 

The  administration  of  the  land  lay,  as  has  been  already 
Th   ffi  •  1  hands  of  the  "  deputy,"  that  is,  the 

viceroy  ;  for,  although  the  new  lord  of  the  land, 
out  of  respect  for  his  position  in  the  empire,  refrained  as 
well  for  himself  as  for  his  delegates  of  higher  station  from 
the  royal  appellations  in  Egypt,  he  yet  in  substance  con- 
ducted his  rule  throughout  as  successor  of  the  Ptolemies, 
and  the  whole  civil  and  military  supreme  power  was  com- 
bined in  his  hand  and  that  of  his  representative.  We  have 
already  observed  that  neither  non-burgesses  nor  senators 
might  fill  this  position  ;  it  was  sometimes  committed  to 
Alexandrians,  if  they  had  attained  to  burgess-rights,  and 
by  way  of  exception  to  equestrian  rank.^  We  may  add 
that  this  office  stood  at  first  before  all  the  rest  of  the  non- 

'  Thus  Tiberius  Julius  Alexander,  an  Alexandrian  Jew,  held  this 
governorship  in  the  last  years  of  Nero  (p.  222) ;  certainly  he  belonged 
to  a  very  rich  family  of  rank,  allied  by  marriage  even  with  the  im 
perial  house,  and  he  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  Parthian  war 
as  chief  of  the  staff  of  Corbulo — ^a  position  which  he  soon  afterwards 
took  up  once  more  in  the  Jewish  war  of  Titus.  He  must  have  been 
one  of  the  ablest  officers  of  this  epoch  To  him  is  dedicated  the 
pseudo-Aristotelian  treatise  irepi  Koa-fjLov  (p.  182),  evidently  composed 
by  another  Alexandrian  Jew  (Bernays,  Gesammelte  Abhandl.  ii.  378). 


268 


Bgyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


senatorial  in  rank  and  influence,  and  subsequently  was 
inferior  only  to  the  commandership  of  the  imperial  guard. 
Besides  the  officers  proper,  in  reference  to  whom  the  only 
departure  from  the  general  arrangement  was  the  exclusion 
of  the  senator  and  the  lower  title,  thence  resulting,  of  the 
commandant  of  the  legion  (praefectus  instead  of  legatus), 
there  acted  alongside  of  and  under  the  governor,  and  like- 
wise for  all  Egypt,  a  supreme  official  for  justice  and  a 
supreme  finance-administrator,  both  likewise  Koman  citi- 
zens of  equestrian  rank,  and  apparently  not  borrowed  from 
the  administrative  scheme  of  the  Ptolemies,  but  attached 
and  subordinated  to  the  governor  after  a  fashion  applied 
also  in  other  imperial  provinces. ' 

All  other  officials  acted  only  for  individual  districts,  and 
were  in  the  main  taken  over  from  the  Ptolemaic  arrange- 

^  Unmistakably  the  iuridicus  Aegypti  {C.  L  L.  x.  6976;  also 
missus  in  Aegyptum  ad  iurisdictionem,  Bull.  deW  Inst.  1856,  p.  142 ; 
iuridicus  Alexajidreae,  C.  vi.  1564,  viii.  8925,  8934  ;  Dig.  i.  20,  2), 
and  the  idiologus  ad  Aegyptum  {G.  x.  4862;  procurator  ducenarius 
Alexandriae  idiulogu,  Eph.  ep.  v.  p.  30,  and  G.  I.  Or.  3751  ;  6  yudoncov 
Tov  l5lov  Xoyov,  G.  I.  Or.  4957,  v.  44,  comp.  v.  39  ,  are  modelled  on 
the  assistants  associated  with  the  legates  of  the  imperial  provinces 
for  the  administration  of  justice  {legati  iuridici)  and  the  finances 
(procuratores  provinciae;  StaatsrecM  1^,  p.  223,  note  5).  That  they 
were  appointed  for  the  whole  land,  and  were  subordinate  to  the 
praefectus  Aegypti,  is  stated  by  Strabo  expressly  (xvii.  1,  12,  p.  797), 
and  this  assumption  is  required  by  the  frequent  mention  of  Egypt 
in  their  style  and  title  as  well  as  by  the  turn  in  the  edict  G.  I. 
Or.  4957,  v.  39.  But  their  jurisdiction  was  not,  exclusive  ;  "  many 
processes,"  says  Strabo,  "are  decided  by  the  official  administering 
justice"  (that  he  assigned  guardians,  we  learn  from  Dig.  i.  20,  2), 
and  according  to  the  same  it  devolved  on  the  Idiologus  in  particular 
to  confiscate  for  the  exchequer  the  hona  vacantia  et  caduca. — This 
does  not  exclude  the  view  that  the  Roman  iuridicus  came  in  place 
of  the  older  court  of  thirty  with  the  apxt^i-Kafrriis  at  its  head 
(Diodorus,  i.  75),  who  was  Egyptian,  and  may  not  be  confounded 
with  the  Alexandrian  apxiSj/catrri^s,  had  moreover  perhaps  been  set 
aside  already  before  the  Roman  period,  and  that  the  Idiologus 
originated  out  of  the  subsistence  in  Egypt  of  a  claim  of  the  king  on 
heritages,  such  as  did  not  occur  to  the  same  extent  in  the  rest  of  the 
empire,  which  latter  view  Lumbroso  {Eecherches,  p.  285)  has  made 
very  probable. 


Chap.  XIIJ 


Egyjpt. 


269 


ment.  That  the  presidents  of  the  three  provinces  of  lower, 
middle,  and  upper  Egypt,  provided — apart  from  the  com- 
mand— with  the  same  sphere  of  business  as  the  governor, 
were  taken  in  the  time  of  Augustus  from  the  Egyptian 
Greeks,  and  subsequently,  like  the  superior  officials  proper, 
from  the  Roman  knighthood,  deserves  to  be  noted  as  a 
symptom  of  the  increasing  tendency  in  the  course  of  the 
imperial  period  to  repress  the  native  element  in  the  magis- 
tracy. 

Under  these  superior  and  intermediate  authorities  stood 
the  local  officials,  the  presidents  of  the  Egyptian  as  of  the 
Greek  towns,  along  with  the  very  numerous  subalterns  em- 
ployed in  the  collecting  of  the  revenue  and  the  manifold 
imposts  laid  on  business-dealings,  and  again  in  the  indi- 
vidual district  the  presidents  of  the  sub-districts  and  of 
the  villages — positions,  which  were  looked  upon  more  as 
burdens  than  as  honours,  and  were  imposed  by  the  higher 
officials  upon  persons  belonging  to,  or  settled  in,  the  lo- 
cality, to  the  exclusion,  however,  of  the  Alexandrians ;  the 
most  important  among  them,  the  presidency  of  the  nome, 
was  filled  up  every  three  years  by  the  governor.  The 
local  authorities  of  the  Greek  towns  were  different  as  to 
number  and  title  ;  in  Alexandria  in  particular  four  chief 
officials  acted,  the  priest  of  Alexander,'  the  town-clerk 

^  The  e'lTjyrjT^s,  according  to  Strabo,  xvii.  1,  12,  p.  797,  the  first 
civic  official  in  Alexandria  under  the  Ptolemies  as  under  the  Ro- 
mans, and  entitled  to  wear  the  purple,  is  certainly  identical  with 
the  year-priest  in  the  testament  of  Alexander  appearing  in  the  Alex- 
ander-romance very  well  instructed  in  such  matters  (iii.  33,  p.  149, 
Miiller).  As  the  Exegetes  has  along  with  his  title,  doubtless  to  be 
taken  in  a  religious  sense,  the  e7rt/ieA.eta  twi/  TroAet  xpvf^^^l^'^v,  that 
priest  of  the  romance  is  eTn/jLeXLo-r^s  rrjs  iroXeus.  The  romance-writer 
will  not  have  invented  the  payment  with  a  talent  and  the  hereditary 
character  any  more  than  the  purple  and  the  golden  chaplet  ;  the 
hereditary  element,  in  reference  to  which  Lumbroso  {V  Egitto  al 
tempo  del  Greci  e  Romani,  p.  152)  recalls  the  i^riynT^i  evapxos  of  the 
Alexandrian  inscriptions  {C.  I.  Gr.  4688,  4976  c),  is  presumably  to 
be  conceived  to  the  effect  that  a  certain  circle  of  persons  was  called 
by  hereditary  right,  and  out  of  these  the  governor  appointed  the 
year-priest.    This  priest  of  Alexander  (as  well  as  of  the  following 


270 


Egyjpt 


[Book  VIII 


(v7ro/xvT7ju,aToypa^o?)/  the  supreme  judge  (dp^j^tStKao-Ti^s),  and 
tlie  master  of  the  night-watch  (w/cTeptvo?  o-TpaxTyyos).  That 
they  were  of  more  consequence  than  the  strategoi  of  the 
nomes,  is  obvious  of  itself,  and  is  shown  clearly  by  the 
purple  dress  belonging  to  the  first  Alexandrian  official. 
We  may  add  that  they  originate  likewise  from  the  Ptol- 
emaic period,  and  are  nominated  for  a  time  by  the  Ro- 
man government,  like  the  presidents  of  the  nomes,  from 
the  persons  settled  therein.  Roman  officials  of  imperial 
nomination  are  not  found  among  these  urban  presidents. 
But  the  priest  of  the  Mouseion,  who  is  at  the  same  time 

Egyptian  kings,  according  to  the  stone  of  Canopus  and  that  of  Ro- 
setta,  C.  I.  Gr.  4697),  was  under  the  earlier  Lagids  the  eponym 
for  Alexandrian  documents,  while  lal  er  as  under  the  Romans  the 
kings'  names  come  in  for  that  purpose.  Not  different  from  him 
probably  was  the  "  chief  priest  of  Alexandria  and  all  Egypt,"  of  an 
inscription  of  the  city  of  Rome  from  Hadrian's  time  (C.  I.  Or. 
5900  :  apxiepet  ' Ake^avdpelas  Kal  Alyvirrovirdcrrjs  AevKio}  'Iov\icp  Ovriffrlvcf 
KoX  iivKrrarr)  rov  Movcreiov  koI  iirl  rcov  iv  'Vu/jxri  fiifi\io67)Ka>v  'PtafxaiKwv  re 
Kal  'EWr]ViKwu  Kal  eVl  t^s  TraiSe/'as  'A^piavov,  iiricrroAel  rov  avrov  dvTOKpd- 
Topos)',  the  proper  title  e^Tj^TjrTjs,  was  avoided  out  of  Egypt,  because 
it  usually  denoted  the  sexton.  If  the  chief  priesthood,  as  the  tenor 
of  the  inscription  suggests,  is  to  be  assumed  as  having  been  at  that 
time  permanent-,  the  transition  from  the  annual  tenure  to  the  at 
least  titular,  and  not  seldom  also  real,  tenure  for  life  repeats  itself, 
as  is  well  known,  in  the  sacerdotia  of  the  provinces,  to  which  this 
Alexandrian  one  did  not  indeed  belong,  but  the  place  of  which  it 
represented  in  Egypt  (p.  259).  That  the  priesthood  and  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Museum  are  two  distinct  offices  is  shown  by  the  in- 
scription itself.  We  learn  the  same  from  the  inscription  of  a  roy- 
al chief  physician  of  a  good  Lagid  period,  who  is  withal  as  well  exe- 
gete  as  president  of  the  Museum  {Xpvaepinov  'HpuKXelrov  'AXe^avSpea 
rhu  arvyyevn  ^acriKeois  IlToX^ixaiov  Kal  e'lTjyTjrV  ^al  iirl  toov  larpwv  Kal 
iiriaTa.T7jv  rov  Movaelov).  But  the  two  monuments  at  the  same  time 
suggest  that  the  post  of  first  official  of  Alexandria  and  the  presidency 
of  the  Museum  were  frequently  committed  to  the  same  man,  al- 
though in  the  Roman  time  the  former  was  conferred  by  the  pre- 
fect, the  latter  by  the  emperor. 

'  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  similar  office  which  Philo  (in 
Flacc.  IG)  mentions  and  Lucian  {A2Jolog.  12)  held;  this  was  not  an 
urban  office,  but  a  subaltern's  post  in  the  praefecture  of  Egypt,  in 
Latin  a  commentariis  or  ab  actis. 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egypt. 


271 


president  of  the  Alexandrian  Academy  of  Sciences  and  also 
disposes  of  the  considerable  pecuniary  means  of  this  in- 
stitute, is  nominated  by  the  emperor  ;  in  like  manner 
the  superintendency  of  the  tomb  of  Alexander  and  the 
buildings  connected  with  it,  and  some  other  important 
positions  in  the  capital  of  Egypt,  were  filled  up  by  the 
government  in  Kome  with  officials  of  equestrian  rank.' 
As  a  matter  of  course,  Alexandrians  and  Egyptians  were 

drawn  into  those  movements  of  pretenders 

which  had  their  origin  in  the  East,  and  regu- 
larly participated  in  them  ;  in  this  way  Vespasian,  Cassius, 
Niger,  Macrianus  (p.  Ill),  Vaballathus  the  son  of  Zenobia, 
Probus,  were  here  proclaimed  as  rulers.  But  the  initiat- 
ive in  all  those  cases  was  taken  neither  by  the  burgesses 
of  Alexandria  nor  by  the  little  esteemed  Egyptian  troops  ; 
and  most  of  those  revolutions,  even  the  unsuccessful,  had 

for  Egypt  no  consequences  specially  felt.  But 
Jene^periw?5  movcmcnt  couuectcd  with  the  name  of 

Zenobia  (p.  116)  became  almost  as  fateful  for 
Alexandria  and  for  all  Egypt  as  for  Palmyra.  In  town 
and  country  the  Palmyrene  and  the  Roman  partisans  con- 
fronted each  other  with  arms  and  blazing  torches  in  their 
hands.  On  the  south  frontier  the  barbarian  Blemyes  ad- 
vanced, apparently  in  agreement  with  the  portion  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Egypt  favourable  to  Palmyra,  and  possessed 
themselves  of  a  great  part  of  upper  Egypt.  ^  In  Alex- 
andria the  intercourse  between  the  two  hostile  quarters 

'  This  is  the  'procurator  Neaspoleos  et  mausolei  Alexandriae  ( C.  1. 
L.  viii.  8934  ;  Henzen,  6929).  Officials  of  a  like  kind  and  of  like 
rank,  but  whose  functions  are  not  quite  clear,  are  the  procurator  ad 
Mercurium  Alexandreae  {G.  1.  L.  x.  3847),  and  the  procurator  Alex- 
andreae  Pelusii  {0.  vi.  1024).  The  Pharos  also  is  placed  under  an 
imperial  freedman  (C.  vi.  8582). 

^  The  alliance  of  the  Palmyrenes  and  the  Blemyes  is  pointed  to 
by  the  notice  of  the  vita  Firmi,  c.  3,  and  by  the  statement,  accord- 
ing to  Zosimus,  i.  71,  that  Ptolemais  fell  away  to  the  Blemyes  (comp. 
Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.  vii.  32).  Aurelian  only  negotiated  with  these 
( Vita^  34,  41)  ;  it  was  Probus  who  first  drove  them  again  out  of 
Egypt  (Zosimus,  I.e.;  Vita,  17), 


272 


Egyyt 


[Book  VIII. 


was  cutoff;  it  was  difficult  and  dangerous  even  to  forward 
letters.^  The  streets  were  filled  with  blood  and  with  dead 
bodies  unburied.  The  diseases  thereby  engendered  made 
even  more  havoc  than  .the  sword  ;  and,  in  order  that  none 
of  the  four  steeds  of  destruction  might  be  wanting,  the 
Nile  also  failed,  and  famine  associated  itself  with  the 
other  scourges.  The  population  melted  away  to  such  an 
extent  that,  as  a  contemporary  says,  there  were  formerly 
more  gray-haired  men  in  Alexandria  than  there  were  af- 
terwards citizens. 

When  Probus,  the  general  sent  by  Claudius,  at  length 
gained  the  upper  hand,  the  Palmyrene  partisans,  includ- 
ing the  majority  of  the  members  of  council,  threw  them- 
selves into  the  strong  castle  of  Prucheion  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  city  ;  and,  although,  when  Probus 
promised  to  spare  the  lives  of  those  that  should  come  out, 
the  great  majority  submitted,  yet  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  citizens  persevered  to  the  uttermost  in  the  struggle 
of  despair.  The  fortress,  at  length  reduced  by  hunger 
(270),  was  razed  and  lay  thenceforth  desolate  ;  but  the 
city  lost  its  walls.  The  Blemyes  still  maintained  them- 
selves for  years  in  the  land  ;  the  emperor  Probus  first 
wrested  from  them  again  Ptolemais  and  Coptos,  and  drove 
them  out  of  the  country. 

The  state  of  distress,  which  these  troubles  prolonged 
through  a  series  of  years,  must  have  produced,  may  prob- 

'  We  still  possess  letters  of  this  sort,  addressed  by  the  bishop^ of 
the  city,  at  that  time  Dionysius  (f  265),  to  the  members  of  the 
church  shut  off  iu  the  hostile  half  of  the  town  (Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl. 
vii.  21,  22,  comp.  32).  When  it  is  therein  said  :  "  one  gets  more 
easily  from  the  West  to  the  East  than  from  Alexandria  to  Alex- 
andria," and  7)  fieaair drrj  Trjs  Trt^Aecos  65(^s,  consequently  the  street 
furnished  with  colonnades,  running  from  the  Lochias  point  right 
through  the  town  (comp.  Lumbroso,  VEgitto  al  tempo  dei  Greci  e 
Romania,  1882,  p.  187)  is  compared  with  the  desert  between  Egypt 
and  the  promised  land,  it  appears  almost  as  if  Severus  Antoninus  had 
carried  out  his  threat  of  drawing  a  wall  across  the  town  and  occupy- 
ing it  in  a  military  fashion  (Dio,  Ixxvii.  23).  The  razing  of  the 
walls  after  the  overthrow  of  the  revolt  (Ammianus,  xxii.  16,  15j 
would  then  have  to  be  referred  to  this  very  building. 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egyp. 


27S 


ably  thereupon  have  brought  to  an  outbreak,  the  only  rev- 
olution that  can  be  shown  to  have  arisen  in 
moSeS^n!'  Egypt. '  Under  the  government  of  Diocletian, 
we.  do  not  know  why  or  wherefore,  as  well 
the  native  Egyptians  as  the  burgesses  of  Alexandria  rose 
in  revolt  against  the  existing  government.  Lucius  Do- 
mitius  Domitianus  and  Achilleus  were  set  up  as  opposi- 
tion emperors,  unless  possibly  the  two  names  denote  the 
same  person ;  the  revolt  lasted  from  three  to  four  years, 
the  towns  Busiris  in  the  Delta  and  Coptos  not  far  from 
Thebes  were  destroyed  by  the  troops  of  the  government, 
and  ultimately  under  the  leading  of  Diocletian  in  person 
in  the  spring  of  297  the  capital  was  reduced  after  an  eight 
months'  siege.  Nothing  testifies  so  clearly  to  the  decline 
of  the  land,  rich,  but  thoroughly  dependent  on  inward 
and  outward  peace,  as  the  edict  issued  in  the  year  302 
by  the  same  Diocletian,  that  a  portion  of  the  Egyptian 
grain  hitherto  sent  to  Kome  should  for  the  future  go  to 
the  benefit  of  the  Alexandrian  burgesses.^  This  was  cer- 
tainly among  the  measures  which  aimed  at  the  decapitalis- 
ing  of  Kome  ;  but  the  supply  would  not  have  been  directed 
towards  the  Alexandrians,  whom  this  emperor  had  truly 
no  cause  to  favour,  unless  they  had  urgently  needed  it. 
Economically  Egypt,  as  is  well-known,  is  above  all  the 
land  of  agriculture.  It  is  true  that  the  "black 
earth " — that  is  the  meaning  of  the  native 
name  for  the  country,  Chemi — is  only  a  narrow  stripe  on 
either  side  of  the  mighty  Nile  flowing  from  the  last  rapids 
near  Syene,  the  southern  limit  of  Egypt  proper,  for  550 
miles  in  a  copious  stream,  through  the  yellow  desert  ex- 

^  The  alleged  Egyptian  tyrants,  Aemilianus,  Firmus,  Saturninus, 
are  at  least  not  attested  as  such.  The  so-called  description  of  the 
life  of  the  second  is  nothing  else  than  the  sadly  disfigured  catas- 
trophe of  Prucheion. 

Chr.  Pasch.  p.  514 ;  Procopius,  Hist.  arc.  26 ;  Gothofred.  on 
Cod.  Theod.  xiv.  26,  2.  Stated  distributions  of  corn  had  already 
been  instituted  earlier  in  Alexandria,  but  apparently  only  for  per- 
sons old  and  decayed,  and — it  may  be  conjectured — on  account 
of  the  city,  not  of  the  state  (Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.  vii.  21). 
Vol.  II.— 18 


274 


Egyjpt 


[Book  VIII. 


tending  right  and  left,  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea  ;  only  at 
its  lower  end  the  "  gift  of  the  river,"  the  Nile-delta, 
spreads  itself  out  on  both  sides  between  the  manifold 
arms  of  its  mouth.  The  produce  of  these  tracts  depends 
year  by  year  on  the  Nile  and  on  the  sixteen  cubits  of  its 
flood-mark — the  sixteen  children  playing  round  their  fa- 
ther, as  the  art  of  the  Greeks  represented  the  river-god ; 
with  good  reason  the  Arabs  designate  the  low  cubits  by 
the  name  of  the  angels  of  death,  for,  if  the  river  does  not 
reach  its  full  height,  famine  and  destruction  come  upon 
the  whole  land  of  Egypt.  But  in  general  Egypt — where 
the  expenses  of  cultivation  are  singularly  low,  wheat  bears 
an  hundred  fold,  and  the  culture  of  vegetables,  of  the 
vine,  of  trees,  particularly  the  date-palm,  as  well  as  the 
rearing  of  cattle,  yield  good  produce — is  able  not  merely 
to  feed  a  dense  population,  but  also  to  send  corn  in  large 
quantity  abroad.  This  led  to  the  result  that,  after  the 
installation  of  the  foreign  rule,  not  much  of  its  riches  was 
left  to  the  land  itself.  The  Nile  rose  at  that  time  nearly 
as  in  the  Persian  period  and  as  it  does  to-day,  and  the 
Egyptian  toiled  chiefly  for  other  lands ;  and  thereby  in  the 
first  instance  Egypt  played  an  important  part  in  the  his- 
tory of  imperial  Rome.  After  the  grain-cultivation  in  Italy 
itself  had  decayed  and  Eome  had  become  the  greatest  city 
of  the  world,  it  needed  constant  supplies  of  moderately- 
priced  transmarine  grain ;  and  the  principate  strengthened 
itself  above  all  by  the  solution  of  the  far  from  easy  eco- 
nomic problem  how  to  make  the  supply  of  the  capital  finan- 
cially possible  and  to  render  it  secure.  This  solution  de- 
pended on  the  possession  of  Egypt,  and,  in  as  much  as 
here  the  emperor  bore  exclusive  sway,  he  kept  Italy  with 
its  dependencies  in  check  through  Egypt.  When  Ves- 
pasian seized  the  dominion  he  sent  his  troops  to  Italy, 
but  he  went  in  person  to  Egypt  and  possessed  himself  of 
Rome  through  the  corn-fleet.  Wherever  a  Roman  ruler 
had,  or  is  alleged  to  have  had,  the  idea  of  transferring  the 
seat  of  government  to  the  East,  as  is  told  us  of  Caesar, 
Antonius,  Nero,  Geta,  there  the  thoughts  were  directed, 


^      Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


275 


as  if  spontaneously,  not  to  Antioch,  although  this  was  at 
that  time  the  regular  court-residence  of  the  East,  but 
toward  the  birthplace  and  the  stronghold  of  the  princi- 
pate — to  Alexandria. 

For  that  reason,  accordingly,  the  Koman  government  ap- 
plied itself  more  zealously  to  the  elevation  of  agriculture 
in  Egypt  than  anywhere  else.  As  it  is  dependent  on  the 
inundation  of  the  Nile,  it  was  possible  to  extend  consid- 
erably the  surface  fitted  for  cultivation  by  systematic- 
ally executed  water- works,  artifical  canals,  dykes,  and  reser- 
voirs. In  the  good  times  of  Egypt,  the  native  land  of  the 
measuring-chain  and  of  artifical  building,  much  was  done 
for  it,  but  these  beneficent  structures  fell,  under  the  last 
wretched  and  financially  oppressed  governments,  into  sad 
decay.  Thus  the  Koman  occupation  introduced  itself 
worthily  by  Augustus  subjecting  the  canals  of  the  Nile  to 
a  thorough  purifying  and  renewal  by  means  of  the  troops 
stationed  in  Egypi.  If  at  the  time  of  the  Eomans  taking 
possession  a  full  harvest  required  a  state  of  the  river  of 
fourteen  cubits,  and  at  eight  cubits  failure  of  the  harvest 
occurred,  at  a  later  period,  after  the  canals  were  put  into 
order,  twelve  cubits  were  enough  for  a  full  harvest,  and 
eight  cubits  still  yielded  a  su£&cient  produce.  Centuries 
later  the  emperor  Probus  not  merely  liberated  Egypt  from 
the  Ethiopians  but  also  restored  the  water-works  on  the 
Nile.  It  may  be  assumed,  generally,  that  the  better  suc- 
cessors of  Augustus  administered  in  a  similar  sense,  and 
that  especially  with  the  internal  peace  and  security  hardly 
interrupted  for  centuries,  Egyptian  agriculture  stood  in  a 
permanently  flourishing  state  under  the  Koman  principj-te. 
What  reflex  effect  this  state  of  things  had  on  the  Egyp- 
tians themselves  we  are  not  able  to  follow  out  more  ex- 
actly. To  a  great  extent  the  revenues  from  Egypt  rested 
on  the  possession  of  the  imperial  domains,  which  in  Ko- 
man as  in  earlier  times  formed  a  considerable  part  of 
the  whole  area  ; '  here,  especially  considering  the  small 

'  In  tlie  town  of  Alexandria  there  appears  to  have  been  no  landed 
property  in  the  strict  sense,  but  only  a  sort  of  hereditary  lease 


276 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


cost  of  cultivation,  only  a  moderate  proportion  of  the 
produce  must  have  been  left  to  the  small  tenants  vs^ho 
provided  it,  or  a  high  money-rent  must  have  been  im- 
posed. But  even  the  numerous,  and  as  a  rule  smaller, 
owners  must  have  paid  a  high  land-tax  in  corn  or  in 
money.  The  agricultural  population,  contented  as  it  was, 
remained  probably  numerous  in  the  imperial  period  ;  but 
certainly  the  pressure  of  taxation,  as  well  in  itself  as  on 
account  of  the  expenditure  of  the  produce  abroad,  lay  as 
a  heavier  burden  on  Egypt  under  the  Roman  foreign  rule 
than  under  the  by  no  means  indulgent  government  of  the 
Ptolemies. 

Of  the  economy  of  Egypt  agriculture  formed  but  a  part ; 

(Ammianus,  xxii.  11,  6  ;  StaatsrecM^  ii.  963,  note  1)  ;  but  other- 
wise private  property  in  the  soil  prevailed  also  in  Egypt,  in  the 
sense  in  which  the  provincial  law  knows  such  a  thing  at  all.  There  is 
often  mention  of  domanial  possession  e.g.  Strabo,  xvii.  1,  51,  p.  828, 
says  that  the  best  Egyptian  dates  grow  on  an  island  on  which  private 
persons  might  not  possess  any  land,  but  it  was  formerly  royal,  now 
imperial,  and  yielded  a  large  income.  Vespasian  sold  a  portion  of 
the  Egyptian  domains  and  thereby  exasperated  the  Alexandrians 
(Dio,  Ixvi.  8) — beyond  doubt  the  great  farmers  who  then  gave  the 
land  in  sub-lease  to  the  peasants  proper.  Whether  landed  prop- 
erty in  mortmain,  especially  of  the  priestly  colleges,  was  in  the  Ro- 
man period  still  as  extensive  as  formerly,  may  be  doubted;  as  also 
whether  otherwise  large  estates  or  small  properties  predominated  ; 
petty  husbandry  was  certainly  general.  We  possess  figures  neither 
for  the  domanial  quota  nor  for  that  of  the  land-tax  ;  that  the  fifth 
sheaf  in  Orosius,  i.  8, 9,  is  copied  including  the  usque  ad  nunc  from 
Genesis,  is  rightly  observed  by  Lumbroso,  Redierches.,  p.  94.  The 
domanial  rent  cannot  have  amounted  to  less  than  the  half  ;  even  for 
the  land-tax  the  tenth  (Lumbroso,  I.  c.  p.  289,  293)  may  have  hardly 
sufficed.  Export  of  grain  otherwise  from  Egypt  needed  the  con- 
sent of  the  governor  (Hirschfeld,  Annona^  p.  23),  doubtless  because 
otherwise  scarcity  might  easily  set  in  in  the  thickly-peopled  land. 
Yet  this  arrangement  was  certainly  more  by  way  of  control  than 
of  prohibition  ;  in  the  Periplus  of  the  Egyptian  corn  is  on  several 
occasions  (c.  7,  17,  24,  28,  comp.  56)  adduced  among  the  articles  of 
export.  Even  the  cultivation  of  the  fields  seems  to  have  become 
similarly  controlled  ;  "  the  Egyptians,  it  is  said,  are  fonder  of  cul- 
tivating rape  than  corn,  so  far  as  they  may,  on  account  of  the  rape- 
seed  oil"  (Plinius,  H.  iV.  xix.  5,  79). 


Chap.  XIl.] 


Egyjpt 


277 


as  it  in  this  respect  stood  far  before  Syria,  so  it  had 
the  advantage  of  a  high  prosperity  of  manu- 
Trades.  factures  and  commerce  as  compared  with  the 

essentially  agricultural  Africa.  The  linen  manufacture 
in  Egypt  was  at  least  equal  in  age,  extent,  and  renown  to 
the  Syrian,  and  maintained  its  ground  through  the  whole 
imperial  period,  although  the  finer  sorts  at  this  epoch  were 
especially  manufactured  in  Syria  and  Phoenicia ;  '  when 
Aurelian  extended  the  contributions  made  from  Egypt  to 
the  capital  of  the  empire  to  other  articles  than  corn,  linen 
cloth  and  tow  were  not  wanting  among  them.  In  fine 
glass  wares,  both  as  regards  colouring  and  moulding,  the 
Alexandrians  held  decidedly  the  first  place,  in  fact,  as 
they  thought,  the  monopoly,  in  as  much  as  certain  best 
sorts  were  only  to  be  prepared  with  Egyptian  material. 
Indisputably  they  had  such  a  material  in  the  papyrus. 
This  plant,  which  in  antiquity  was  cultivated  in  masses  on 
the  rivers  and  lakes  of  lower  Egypt,  and  flourished  no- 
where else,  furnished  the  natives  as  well  with  nourishment 
as  with  materials  for  ropes,  baskets,  and  boats,  and  fur- 
nished writing  materials  at  that  time  for  the  whole  writ- 
ing world.  What  produce  it  must  have  yielded,  we  may 
gather  from  the  measures  which  the  Koman  senate  took, 
when  once  in  the  Roman  market  the  papyrus  became 
scarce  and  threatened  to  fail ;  and,  as  its  laborious  prepa- 
ration could  only  take  place  on  the  spot,  numberless  men 
must  have  subsisted  by  it  in  Egypt.  The  deliveries  of 
Alexandrian  wares  introduced  by  Aurelian  in  favour  of  the 
capital  of  the  empire  extended,  along  with  linen,  to  glass 
and  papyrus.^    The  intercourse  with  the  East  must  have 

'  In  the  edict  of  Diocletian  among  the  five  fine  sorts  of  linen  the 
first  four  are  Syrian  or  Cilician  (of  Tarsus)  and  the  Egyptian  linen 
appears  not  merely  in  the  last  place,  but  is  also  designated  as  Tar- 
sian -Alexandrian,  that  is,  prepared  in  Alexandria  after  the  Tarsian 
model. 

-  It  was  related  of  a  rich  man  in  Egypt  that  he  had  lined  his 
palace  with  glass  instead  of  with  marble,  and  that  he  possessed 
papyrus  and  lime  enough  to  provide  an  army  with  them  {yUa 
Firmij  3). 


278 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


had  a  varied  influence  on  Egyptian  manufactures  as  re- 
gards supply  and  demand.  Textures  were  manufactured 
there  for  export  to  the  East,  and  that  in  the  fashion  re- 
quired by  the  usage  of  the  country  ;  the  ordinary  clothes 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Habesh  were  of  Egyptian  manufac- 
ture ;  the  gorgeous  stuffs  especially  of  the  weaving  in 
colours  and  in  gold  skilfully  practised  at  Alexandria  went 
to  Arabia  and  India.  In  like  manner  the  glass  beads  pre-, 
pared  in  Egypt  played  the  same  part  in  the  commerce  of 
the  African  coast  as  at  the  present  day.  India  procured 
partly  glass  cups,  partly  unwrought  glass  for  its  own 
manufacture  ;  even  at  the  Chinese  court  the  glass  vessels, 
with  which  the  Koman  strangers  did  homage  to  the  em- 
peror, are  said  to  have  excited  great  admiration.  Egyp- 
tian merchants  brought  to  the  king  of  the  Axomites 
(Habesh)  as  standing  presents  gold  and  silver  vessels  pre- 
pared after  the  fashion  of  that  country,  to  the  civilised 
rulers  of  the  South-Arabian  and  Indian  coast  among  other 
gifts  also  statues,  probably  of  bronze,  and  musical  instru- 
ments. On  the  other  hand  the  materials  for  the  manu- 
facture of  luxuries  which  came  from  the  East,  especially 
ivory  and  tortoise-shell,  were  worked  up  hardly  perhaps  in 
Egypt,  chiefly,  in  all  probability,  at  Rome.  Lastly,  at  an 
epoch  which  never  had  its  match  in  the  West  for  magnifi- 
cent public  buildings,  the  costly  building  materials  sup- 
plied by  the  Egyptian  quarries  came  to  be  employed  in 
enormous  masses  outside  of  Egypt ;  the  beautiful  red 
granite  of  Syene,  the  green  breccia  from  the  region  of 
Koser,  the  basalt,  the  alabaster,  after  the  time  of  Claudi- 
us the  gray  granite,  and  especially  the  porphyry  of  the 
mountains  above  Myos  Hormos.  The  working  of  them 
was  certainly  effected  for  the  most  part  on  imperial  ac- 
count by  penal  colonists  ;  but  the  transport  at  least  must 
have  gone  to  benefit  the  whole  country  and  particular- 
ly the  city  of  Alexandria,  The  extent  to  which  Egyp- 
tian traffic  and  Egyptian  manufactures  were  developed  is 
shown  by  an  accidentally-preserved  notice  as  to  the  cargo 
of  a  transport  ship  (aKaros),  distinguished  by  its  size, 


^    Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


2Y9 


which  under  Augustus  brought  to  Rome  the  obelisk  now 
standing  at  the  Porta  del  Popolo  with  its  base  ;  it  car- 
ried, besides  200  sailors,  1200  passengers,  400,000  Roman 
bushels  (34,000  hectolitres)  of  wheat,  and  a  cargo  of  lin- 
en cloth,  glass,  paper,  and  pepper.  "  Alexandria,"  says  a 
Roman  author  of  the  third  century,'  "  is  a  town  of  plenty, 
of  wealth,  and  of  luxury,  in  which  nobody  goes  idle  ;  this 
one  is  a  glass  worker,  that  one  a  paper-maker,  the  third  a 
linen-weaver  ;  the  only  god  is  money."  This  held  true 
proportionally  of  the  whole  land. 

Of  the  commercial  intercourse  of  Egypt  with  the  re- 
gions adjoining  it  on  the  south,  as  well  as 
gation  of  the     with  Arabia  and  India,  we  shall  speak  more 

Mediterranean.  SCqUcl.       The    traffic    with  the 

countries  of  the  Mediterranean  comes  less  into  promi- 
nence in  the  traditional  account,  partly,  doubtless,  because 
it  belonged  to  the  ordinary  course  of  things,  and  there 
was  not  often  occasion  to  make  special  mention  of  it.  The 
Egyptian  corn  was  conveyed  to  Italy  by  Alexandrian  ship- 
masters, and  in  consequence  of  this  there  arose  in  Portus 
near  Ostia  a  sanctuary  modelled  on  the  Alexandrian  temple 
of  Sarapis  with  a  mariner's  guild  ;  ^  but  these  transport- 

'  That  the  alleged  letter  of  Hadrian  ( Vita  Saturnini,  8)  is  a  late 
fabrication,  is  shown  e.g.  by  the  fact,  that  the  emperor  in  this 
highly  friendly  letter  addressed  to  his  father-in-law,  Servianus,  com- 
plains of  the  injuries  which  the  Alexandrians  at  his  first  departure 
had  heaped  on  his  son  Verus,  while  on  the  other  hand  it  is  estab- 
lished that  this  Servianus  was  executed  at  the  age  of  ninety  in  the 
year  136,  because  he  had  disapproved  the  adoption  of  Verus,  which 
had  taken  place  shortly  before. 

^  The  vavKKrjpoi  rov  iropevriKOv  'A.\€^avSpeivov  ardXav.,  who  set  up  the 
stone  doubtless  belonging  to  Portus,  G.  I.  Gr.  5889,  were  the  cap- 
tains of  these  grain -ships.  From  the  Serapeum  of  Ostia  we  possess 
a  series  of  inscriptions  (C.  /.  L.  xiv.  47),  according  to  which  it  was 
in  all  parts  a  copy  of  that  at  Alexandria;  the  president  is  at  the  same 
time  e7rt^e\7jTr;s  iravrhs  rov  AAe|az/5p6iVoi;  (Xt6\ov  {C.  J.  Gr.  5973). 
Probably  these  transports  were  employed  mainly  with  the  carriage 
of  grain,  and  this  consequently  took  place  by  succession,  to  which 
also  the  precautions  adopted  by  the  emperor  Gains  in  the  straits  of 
Reggio  (Josephus,  Arc?i.  xix.  2,  5)  point.    With  this  well  comports 


^80 


Egy;pt 


[Book  VIII. 


ships  would  hardly  be  concerned  to  any  considerable  ex- 
tent in  the  sale  of  the  wares  going  from  Egypt  to  the 
West.  This  sale  lay  probably  just  as  much,  and  perhaps 
more,  in  the  hands  of  the  Italian  ship-owners  and  captains 
than  of  the  Egyptian  ;  at  least  there  was  already  under 
the  Lagids  a  considerable  Italian  settlement  in  Alexandria,' 
and  the  Egyptian  merchants  had  not  the  same  diffusion  in 
the  West  as  the  Syrian.^  The  ordinances  of  Augustus,  to 
be  mentioned  afterwards,  which  remodelled  the  com- 
mercial traffic  on  the  Arabian  and  Indian  Seas,  found  no 
application  to  the  navigation  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  the 
government  had  no  interest  in  favouring  the  Egyptian 
merchants  more  than  the  rest  in  its  case.  The  traffic 
there  remained,  presumably,  as  it  was. 

Egypt  was  thus  not  merely  occupied,  in  its  portions 
capable  of  culture,  with  a  dense  agricultural 
Population.  population,  but  was  also  as  the  numerous  and 
in  part  very  considerable  hamlets  and  towns  enable  us  to 
recognise,  a  manufacturing  land,  and  hence  accordingly  by 
far  the  most  populous  province  of  the  Roman  empire.  The 
old  Egypt  is  alleged  to  have  had  a  population  of  seven 
millions ;  under  Vespasian  there  were  counted  in  the  official 
lists  seven  and  a  half  millions  of  inhabitants  liable  to  poll 
tax,  to  which  fall  to  be  added  the  Alexandrians  and  other 
Greeks  exempted  from  poll  tax,  so  that  the  population^ 
apart  from  the  slaves,  is  to  be  estimated  at  least  at  eight 
millions  of  persons.  As  the  area  capable  of  cultivation 
may  be  estimated  at  present  at  10,500  English  square 

the  fact,  that  the  first  appearance  of  the  Alexandrian  fleet  in  the 
spring  was  a  festival  for  Puteoli  (Seneca,  Ep.  77,  1). 

'  This  is  shown  by  the  remarkable  Delian  inscriptions,  e'ph.  epigr. 
i.  p.  600,  602. 

2  Already  in  the  Delian  inscriptions  of  the  last  century  of  the 
republic  the  Syrians  predominate.  The  Egyptian  deities  had 
doubtless  a  much  revered  shrine  there,  but  among  the  numerous 
priests  and  dedicators  we  meet  only  a  single  Alexandrian  (Hauvette- 
Besnault,  Bull,  de  corr.  Hell.  vi.  316  f.).  Guilds  of  Alexandrian 
merchants  are  known  to  us  at  Tomi  (i.  336,  note)  and  at  Perinthus 
((7.  /.  Or.  3024). 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egy;pt 


281 


miles,  and  for  the  Roman  period  at  the  most  at  14,700, 
there  dwelt  at  that  time  in  Egypt  on  the  average  about  520 
persons  to  the  square  mile. 

When  we  direct  our  glance  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
Egypt,  the  two  nations  inhabiting  the  country — the  great 
mass  of  the  Egyptians  and  the  small  minority  of  the  Alex- 
andrians— are  circles  thoroughly  different,'  although  the 
contagious  power  of  vice  and  the  similarity  of  character 
belonging  to  all  vice  have  instituted  a  bad  fellowship  of 
evil  between  the  two. 

The  native  Egyptians  must  not  have  been  far  different 
either  in  position  or  in  character  from  their 
mInneS  modcm  descendants.  They  were  contented, 
sober,  capable  of  labour,  and  active,  skilful 
artisans  and  mariners,  and  adroit  merchants,  adhering  to 
old  customs  and  to  old  faith.  If  the  Romans  assure  us 
that  the  Egyptians  were  proud  of  the  scourge-marks  re- 
ceived for  perpetrating  frauds  in  taxation,^  these  are  views 
derived  from  the  standpoint  of  the  tax  officials.  There 
was  no  want  of  good  germs  in  the  national  culture  ;  with 
all  the  superiority  of  the  Greeks  in  the  intellectual  com- 
petition of  the  two  so  utterly  different  races,  the  Egyp- 
tians in  turn  had  the  advantage  of  the  Hellenes  in  vari- 
ous and  essential  things,  and  they  felt  this  too.  Lastly, 
it  is  at  any  rate  the  reflection  of  their  own  feeling,  when 
the  Egyptian  priests  of  the  Greek  conversational  literature 
ridicule  the  so-called  historical  research  of  the  Hellenes 
and  its  treatment  of  poetical  fables  as  real  tradition  from 
primitive  past  times,  saying  that  in  Egypt  they  made  no 
■verses,  but  their  whole  ancient  history  was  described  in  the 

^  After  Juvenal  has  described  the  wild  drinking  bouts  of  the  na- 
tive Egyptians  in  honour  of  the  local  gods  of  the  several  nomes, 
he  adds  that  therein  the  natives  were  in  no  respect  inferior  to  the 
Canopus,  i.e.  the  Alexandrian  festival  of  Sarapis,  notorious  for  its 
unbridled  licentiousness  (Strabo,  xvii.  1,  17,  p.  801):  Tiorrida  sane 
Aegyptus,  sed  luxuria  quantum  ipsenotavi^  harbara  famoso  non  cedit 
turba  Canopo  (Sat.  xv.  44). 

^  Ammianus,  xxii.  16,  23  :  Erubescit  apud  {Aegyptios)^  si  qui  non 
injUiando  tributa  plurimas  i7i  corpore  vibices  ostendat 


282 


Egypt, 


[Book  VIII. 


temples  and  monuments  ;  although  now,  indeed,  there 
were  but  few  who  knew  it,  since  many  monuments  were 
destroyed,  and  tradition  was  made  to  perish  through  the 
ignorance  and  the  indifference  of  later  generations.  But 
this  well-warranted  complaint  carried  in  itself  hopelessness; 
the  venerable  tree  of  Egyptian  civilisation  had  long  been 
marked  for  cutting  down.  Hellenism  penetrated  with  its 
decomposing  influence  even  to  the  priesthood  itself.  An 
Egyptian  temple- scribe  Chaeremon,  who  was  called  to  the 
court  of  Claudius  as  teacher  of  Greek  philosophy  for  the 
crown-prince,  attributed  in  his  Egyptian  History  the  ele- 
ments of  Stoical  physics  to  the  old  gods  of  the  country, 
and  expounded  in  this  sense  the  documents  written  in 
the  native  character.  In  the  practical  life  of  the  imperial 
period  the  old  Egygtian  habits  come  into  consideration 
almost  only  as  regards  the  religious  sphere.  Eeligion  was 
for  this  people  all  in  all.  The  foreign  rule  in  itself  was 
willingly  borne,  we  might  say  hardly  felt,  so  long  as  it  did 
not  touch  the  sacred  customs  of  the  land  and  what  was 
therewith  connected.  It  is  true  that  in  the  internal  gov- 
ernment of  the  country  nearly  everything  had  such  a  con- 
nection— writing  and  language,  priestly  privileges  and 
priestly  arrogance,  the  manners  of  the  court  and  the  cus- 
toms of  the  country  ;  the  care  of  the  government  for  the 
sacred  ox  living  at  the  moment,  the  provisions  made  for  its 
burial  at  its  decease,  and  for  the  finding  out  of  the  fitting 
successor,  were  accounted  by  these  priests  and  this  people 
as  the  test  of  the  capacity  of  the  ruler  of  the  land  for  the 
time,  and  as  the  measure  of  the  respect  and  homage  due 
to  him.  The  first  Persian  king  introduced  himself  in 
Egypt  by  giving  back  the  sanctuary  of  Neith  in  Sais  to 
its  destination— that  is,  to  the  priests  ;  the  first  Ptol- 
emy, when  still  a  Macedonian  governor,  brought  back  the 
images  of  the  Egyptian  gods,  that  had  been  carried  off 
to  Asia,  to  their  old  abode,  and  restored  to  the  gods  of 
Pe  and  Tep  the  land-gifts  estranged  from  them  ;  for  the 
sacred  temple-images  brought  home  from  Persia  in  the 
great  victorious  expedition  of  Euergetes  the  native  priests 


\ 

Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


283 


convey  their  thanks  to  the  king  in  the  famous  decree  of 
Canopus  in  the  year  238  b.c.  ;  the  customary  insertion  of 
the  living  rulers  male  or  female  in  the  circle  of  the  native 
gods  these  foreigners  acquiesced  in  for  themselves  just  as 
did  the  Egyptian  Pharaohs.  The  Eoman  rulers  followed 
their  example  only  to  a  limited  extent.  As  respects  title 
they  doubtless  entered,  as  we  saw  (p.  265,  note)  in  some 
measure  into  the  native  cultus,  but  avoided  withal,  even  in 
the  Egyptian  setting,  the  customary  predicates  that  stood 
in  too  glaring  a  contrast  to  Occidental  views.  When  these 
favourites  of  Ptah  and  of  Isis  took  steps  in  Italy  against 
the  Egyptian  worship  of  the  gods  as  against  the  Jewish, 
they,  as  may  readily  be  understood,  betrayed  nothing  of 
such  love  beyond  the  hieroglyphs,  and  even  in  Egypt 
nowise  took  part  in  the  service  of  the  native  gods.  How- 
ever obstinately  the  religion  of  the  land  was  still  retained 
under  the  foreign  rule  among  the  Egyptians  proper,  the 
Pariah  position  in  which  these  found  themselves  alongside 
of  the  ruling  Greeks  and  Komans,  necessarily  told  heav- 
ily on  the  cultus  and  the  priests  ;  and  of  the  leading  posi- 
tion, the  influence,  the  culture  of  the  old  Egyptian  priestly 
order  but  scanty  remains  were  discernible  under  the  Ko- 
man  government.  On  the  other  hand,  the  indigenous  re- 
ligion, from  the  outset  disinclined  to  beauty  of  form  and 
spiritual  transfiguration,  served,  in  and  out  of  Egypt,  as  a 
starting-point  and  centre  for  all  conceivable  pious  sorcery 
and  sacred  fraud — it  is  enough  to  recall  the  thrice-greatest 
Hermes  at  home  in  Egypt,  with  the  literature  attaching  to 
his  name  of  tractates  and  marvel-books,  as  well  as  the  cor- 
responding widely  diffused  practice.  But  in  the  circles  of 
the  natives  the  worst  abuses  were  connected  at  this  epoch 
with  their  cultus — not  merely  drinking-bouts  continued 
through  many  days  in  honour  of  the  individual  local  dei- 
ties, with  the  unchastity  thereto  appertaining,  but  also 
permanent  religious  feuds  between  the  several  districts 
for  the  precedence  of  the  ibis  over  the  cat,  or  of  the  croco- 
dile over  the  baboon.  In  the  year  127  a.d.,  on  such  an 
occasion,  the  Ombites  in  southern  Egypt  were  suddenly 


284 


Egyjpt 


[Book  VIII. 


assailed  by  a  neighbouring  community  ■  at  a  drinking- 
festival,  and  the  victors  are  said  to  have  eaten  one  of  the 
slain.  Soon  afterwards  the  community  of  the  Hound,  in 
defiance  of  the  community  of  the  Pike,  consumed  a  pike, 
and  the  latter  in  defiance  of  the  other  consumed  a  hound, 
and  thereupon  a  war  broke  out  between  these  two  nomes, 
till  the  Eomans  interfered  and  chastised  both  parties. 
Such  incidents  were  of  ordinary  occurrence  in  Egypt. 
Nor  was  there  a  want  otherwise  of  troubles  in  the  land. 
The  very  first  viceroy  of  Egypt  appointed  by  Augustus 
had,  on  account  of  an  increase  of  the  taxes,  to  send  troops 
to  upper  Egypt,  and  not  less,  perhaps  likewise  in  conse- 
quence of  the  pressure  of  taxation,  to  Heroonpolis  at  the 
upper  end  of  the  Arabian  Gulf.  Once,  under  the  empe- 
ror Marcus,  a  rising  of  the  native  Egyptians 
^Herdsmen/'  assumed  cvcu  a  threatening  character.  When 
in  the  marshes,  difficult  of  access,  on  the 
coast  to  the  east  of  Alexandria — the  so-called  "cattle- 
pastures"  (pucolia),  which  served  as  a  place  of  refuge  for 
criminals  and  robbers,  and  formed  a  sort  of  colony  of 
them — some  people  were  seized  by  a  division  of  Roman 
troops,  the  whole  banditti  rose  to  liberate  them,  and  the 
population  of  the  country  joined  the  movement.  The  Ro- 
man legion  from  Alexandria  went  to  oppose  them,  but 
it  was  defeated,  and  Alexandria  itself  had  almost  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  The  governor  of  the 
East,  Avidius  Cassius,  arrived  doubtless  with  his  troops, 
but  did  not  venture  on  a  conflict  against  the  superiority  of 
numbers,  and  preferred  to  provoke  dissension  in  the  league 
of  the  rebels  ;  after  the  one  band  ranged  itself  against 
the  other  the  government  easily  mastered  them  all.  This 
so-called  revolt  of  the  herdsmen  probably  bore,  like  such 
peasant  wars  for  the  most  part,  a  religious  character  ;  the 
leader  Isidorus,  the  bravest  man  of  Egypt,  was  by  station 
a  priest ;  and  the  circumstance  that  for  the  consecration  of 

^  This  was  according  to  Juvenal  Tentyra,  which  must  be  a  mis- 
take, if  the  well-known  Tentyra  is  meant ;  but  the  list  of  the 
Ravennate  chronicler,  iii.  2,  names  the  two  places  together. 


Celat.  XII.] 


285 


the  league,  after  taking  the  oath,  a  captive  Eoman  officer 
was  sacrificed  and  eaten  by  those  who  swore,  was  as  well 
in  keeping  with  it  as  with  the  cannibalism  of  the  Ombite 
war.  An  echo  of  these  events  is  preserved  in  the  stories 
of  Egyptian  robbers  in  the  late-Greek  minor  literature. 
Much,  moreover,  as  they  may  have  given  trouble  to  the 
Eoman  administration,  they  had  not  a  political  object, 
and  interrupted  but  partially  and  temporarily  the  general 
tranquillity  of  the  land. 

By  the  side  of  the  Egyptians  stood  the  Alexandrians, 
somewhat  as  the  English  in  India  stand  along- 

Alexandria.  ^  r-i  ^^ 

side  of  the  natives  of  the  country.  Generally, 
Alexandria  was  regarded  in  the  imperial  period  before 
Constantine's  time  as  the  second  city  of  the  Eoman  empire 
and  the  first  commercial  city  of  the  world.  It  numbered 
at  the  end  of  the  Lagid  rule  upwards  of  300,000  free  in- 
habitants, in  the  imperial  period  beyond  doubt  still  more. 
The  comparison  of  the  two  great  capitals  that  grew  up  in 
rivalry  on  the  Nile  and  on  the  Orontes  yields  as  many 
points  of  similarity  as  of  contrast.  Both  were  compara- 
tively new  cities,  monarchical  creations  out  of  nothing,  of 
symmetrical  plan  and  regular  urban  arrangements.  Wa- 
ter ran  into  every  house  in  Alexandria  as  at  Antioch.  In 
beauty  of  site  and  magnificence  of  buildings  the  city  in 
the  valley  of  the  Orontes  was  as  superior  to  its  rival  as  the 
latter  excelled  it  in  the  favourableness  of  the  locality  for 
commerce  on  a  large  scale  and  in  the  number  of  the 
population.  The  great  public  buildings  of  the  Egyptian 
capital,  the  royal  palace,  the  Mouseion  dedicated  to  the 
Academy,  above  all  the  temple  of  Sarapis,  were  marvellous 
works  of  an  earlier  epoch,  whose  architecture  was  highly 
developed  ;  but  the  Egyptian  capital,  in  which  few  of  the 
Caesars  set  foot,  has  nothing  corresponding  to  set  off 
against  the  great  number  of  imperial  structures  in  the 
Syrian  residency. 

The  Antiochenes  and  Alexandrians  stood  on  an  equal 
footing  in  insubordination  and  'eagerness  to  oppose  the 
government ;  we  may  add  also  in  this,  that  the  two  cities, 


286 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


and  Alexandria  more  particularly,  flourished  precisely  under 
and  through  the  Roman  government,  and  had 
Fiondef much  more  reason  to  thank  it  than  to  play 
the  Fronde.  The  attitude  of  the  Alexandrians 
to  their  Hellenic  rulers  is  attested  by  the  long  series  of 
nicknames,  in  part  still  used  at  the  present  day,  for  which 
the  royal  Ptolemies  without  exception  were  indebted  to 
the  public  of  their  capital.  The  Emperor  Vespasian  re- 
ceived from  the  Alexandrians  for  the  introducing  of  a  tax 
on  salt  fish  the  title  of  the  "sardine-dealer  "  (Kv^tocra/CTTys); 
the  Syrian  Severus  Alexander  that  of  the  "  chief  Eabbin  ; " 
but  the  emperors  came  rarely  to  Egypt,  and  the  distant 
and  foreign  rulers  offered  no  genuine  butt  for  this  ridicule. 
In  their  absence  the  public  bestowed  at  least  on  the  vice- 
roys the  same  attention  with  persevering  zeal ;  even  the 
prospect  of  inevitable  chastisement  was  not  able  to  put  to 
silence  the  often  witty  and  always  saucy  tongue  of  these 
townsmen."  Vespasian  contented  himself  in  return  for 
that  attention  shown  to  him  with  raising  the  poll-tax 
about  six  farthings,  and  got  for  doing  so  the  further  name 
of  the  "  sixfarthing-man  ; "  but  their  sayings  about  Seve- 
rus Antoninus,  the  petty  ape  of  Alexander  the  Great  and 
the  favourite  of  Mother  Jocasta,  were  to  cost  them  more 
dearly.  The  spiteful  ruler  appeared  in  all  friendliness, 
and  allowed  the  people  to  keep  holiday  for  him,  but  then 
ordered  his  soldiers  to  charge  into  the  festal  multitude,  so 
that  for  days  the  squares  and  streets  of  the  great  city  ran 
with  blood  ;  in  fact,  he  enjoined  the  dissolution  of  the 
Academy  and  the  transfer  of  the  legion  into  the  city  itself 
— neither  of  which,  it  is  true,  was  carried  into  effect. 
But  while  in  Antioch,  as  a  rule,  the  matter  did  not  go 
beyond  sarcasm,  the  Alexandrian  rabble  took 
^muits"*"  on  the  slightest  pretext  to  stones  and  to  cud- 
gels. In  street  uproar,  says  an  authority,  him- 
self Alexandrian,  the  Egyptians  are  before  all  others  ;  the 
smallest  spark  suffices  here  to  kindle  a  tumult.    On  ac- 

^  Seneca,  ad  Helv.  19,  6:  loquax  et  in  contumelias  praefectorumin- 
geniosa  provincia    ,    ,    .    etiam  periculosi  sales  placent. 


Chap.  XII.]  Egy^t.  287 

count  of  neglected  visits,  on  account  of  the  confiscation  of 
spoiled  provisions,  on  account  of  exclusion  from  a  bathing 
establishment,  on  account  of  a  dispute  between  the  slave  of 
an  Alexandrian  of  rank  and  a  Koman  foot-soldier  as  to  the 
value  or  non-value  of  their  respective  slippers,  the  legions 
were  under  the  necessity  of  charging  among  the  citizens 
of  Alexandria.  It  here  became  apparent  that  the  lower 
stratum  of  the  Alexandrian  population  consisted  in  greater 
part  of  natives  ;  in  these  riots  the  Greeks  no  doubt  acted 
as  instigators,  as  indeed  the  rhetors,  that  is,  in  this  case 
the  inciting  orators,  are  expressly  mentioned  ;'  but  in  the 
further  course  of  the  matter  the  spite  and  the  savageness 
of  the  Egyptian  proper  came  into  the  conflict.  The  Syrians 
were  cowardly,  and  as  soldiers  the  Egyptians  were  so  too  ; 
but  in  a  street  tumult  they  were  able  to  develop  a  courage 
wwthy  of  a  better  cause.  ^  The  Antiochenes  delighted  in 
race-horses  like  the  Alexandrians  ;  but  among  the  latter  no 
chariot  race  ended  without  stone-throwing  and  stabbing. 
Both  cities  were  affected  by  the  persecution  of  the  Jews 
under  the  emperor  Gains;  but  in  Antioch  an  earnest  word 
of  the  authorities  sufficed  to  put  an  end  to  it,  while  thou- 
sands of  human  lives  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  Alexandrian  out- 
break instigated  by  some  clowns  with  a  puppet-show.  The 
Alexandrians,  it  was  said,  when  a  riot  arose,  gave  them- 
selves no  peace  till  they  had  seen  blood.  The  Roman  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  had  a  difficult  position  there.  "Alex- 

^  Dio  Chrysostum  says  in  his  address  to  the  Alexandrians  (Or. 
xxxii.  p.  663  Reiske):  "  Because  now  (the  intelligent)  keep  in  the 
background  and  are  silent,  there  spring  up  among  you  endless  dis- 
putes and  quarrels  and  disorderly  clamour,  and  bad  and  unbridled 
speeches,  accusers,  aspersions,  trials,  a  rabble  of  orators."  In  the 
Alexandrian  Jew-hunt,  which  Philo  so  drastically  describes,  we  see 
these  mob-orators  at  work. 

Dio  Cassius,  xxxix.  58:  "The  Alexandrians  do  the  utmost  in  all 
respects  as  to  daring,  and  speak  out  everything  that  occurs  to  them. 
In  war  and  its  terrors  their  conduct  is  cowardly  ;  but  in  tumults, 
which  with  them  are  very  frequent  and  very  serious,  they  without 
scruple  come  to  mortal  blows,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  success  of  the 
moment  account  their  life  nothing,  nay,  they  go  to  their  destruction 
as  if  the  highest  things  were  at  stake, " 


288 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


andria,"  says  a  reporter  of  the  fourth  century,  "is  entered 
by  the  governors  with  trembling  and  despair,  for  they  fear 
the  justice  of  the  people  ;  where  a  governor  perpetrates  a 
wrong,  there  follows  at  once  the  setting  of  the  palace  on 
fire  and  stoning."  The  naive  trust  in  the  rectitude  of  this 
procedure  marks  the  stand-point  of  the  writer,  w^ho  be- 
longed to  this  "  people."  The  continuation  of  this  Lynch- 
system,  dishonouring  alike  to  the  government  and  to  the 
nation,  is  furnished  by  what  is  called  Church-history,  in 
the  murder  of  the  bishop  Georgius,  alike  obnoxious  to  the 
heathen  and  to  the  orthodox,  and  of  his  associates  under 
Julian,  and  that  of  the  fair  freethinker  Hypatia  by  the 
pious  community  of  Bishop  Cyril  under  Theodosius  II. 
These  Alexandrian  tumults  were  more  malicious,  more  in- 
calculable, more  violent  than  the  Antiochene,  but  just  like 
these,  not  dangerous  either  for  the  stability  of  the  em- 
pire or  even  for  the  individual  government.  Mischievous 
and  ill-disposed  lads  are  very  inconvenient,  but  not  more 
than  inconvenient,  in  the  household  as  in  the  common- 
wealth. 

In  religious  matters  also  the  two  cities  had  an  analogous 
position.  To  the  worship  of  the  land,  as  the 
worsM^"^^  native  population  retained  it  in  Syria  as  in 
Egypt,  the  Alexandrians  as  well  as  the  Anti- 
ochenes  were  disinclined  in  its  original  shape.  But  the 
Lagids,  as  well  as  the  Seleucids,  were  careful  of  disturbing 
the  foundations  of  the  old  religion  of  the  country ;  and, 
merely  amalgamating  the  older  national  views  and  sacred 
rites  with  the  pliant  forms  of  the  Greek  Olympus,  they 
Hellenised  these  outwardly  in  some  measure  ;  they  intro- 
duced, e.g.  the  Greek  god  of  the  lower  world  Pluto  into 
the  native  worship,  under  the  hitherto  little  mentioned 
name  of  the  Egyptian  god  Sarapis,  and  then  gradually 
transferred  to  this  the  old  Osiris  worship. '   Thus  the  gen- 

'  The  *'  pious  Egyptians"  offered  resistance,  as  Macrobius,  Sat.  i. 
7,  14,  reports,  but  tyrannide  Ptolemaeorum  pressi  lios  quoque  deos 
(Sarapis  and  Saturnus)  in  cuUum  recipere  Alexandrinorum  more, 
apud  quos  2^otissimum  colebantur,  coacti  sunt.    As  they  thus  had  to 


Chap.  XII.  ] 


EgyjpL 


289 


uinely  Egj^tian  Isis  and  the  pseudo-Egyptian  Sarapis 
played  in  Alexandria  nearly  the  same  part  as  Belus  and 
Elagabalus  in  Syria,  and  made  their  way  in  a  similar  man- 
ner with  these,  although  less  strongly  and  with  more  ve- 
hement opposition,  by  degrees  into  the  Occidental  wor- 
ship of  the  imperial  period.  As  regards  the  immorality 
developed  on  occasion  of  these  religious  usages  and  festi- 
vals, and  the  unchastity  approved  and  stimulated  by 
priestly  blessing,  neither  city  was  in  a  position  to  upbraid 
the  other. 

Down  to  a  late  time  the  old  cultus  retained  its  firmest 
stronghold  in  the  pious  land  of  Egypt.  ^    The  restoration 

present  bloody  sacrifices,  whicli  was  against  their  ritual,  they  did 
not  admit  these  gods,  at  least  into  the  towns ;  nullum  Aegypti  oppi- 
dum  intra  muros  suos  aut  Batumi  aut  Sarapis  fajium  recepit. 

'  The  often-quoted  anonymous  author  of  a  description  of  the  em- 
pire from  the  time  of  Constantius,  a  good  heathen,  praises  Egypt 
particularly  on  account  of  its  exemplary  piety  :  "Nowhere  are  the 
mysteries  of  the  gods  so  well  celebrated  as  there  from  of  old  and 
still  at  present."  Indeed,  he  adds,  some  were  of  opinion  that  the 
Chaldaeans — he  means  the  Syrian  cultus — worshipped  the  gods  bet- 
ter ;  but  he  held  to  what  he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes — "  Here 
there  are  shrines  of  all  sorts  and  magnificently  adorned  temples, 
and  there  are  found  numbers  of  sacristans  and  priests  and  prophets 
and  believers  and  excellent  theologians,  and  all  goes  on  in  its  order; 
you  find  the  altars  everywhere  blazing  with  flame  and  the  priests 
with  their  fillets  and  the  incense-vessels  with  deliciously  fragrant 
spices."  Nearly  from  the  same  time  (not  from  Hadrian),  and  evi- 
dently also  from  a  well-informed  hand,  proceeds  another  more  ma- 
licious description  {vita  Saturnini,  8) :  "  He  who  in  Egypt  worships 
Sarapis  is  also  a  Christian,  and  those  who  call  themselves  Christian 
bishops  likewise  adore  Sarapis  ;  every  grand  Rabbi  of  the  Jews, 
every  Samaritan,  every  Christian  clergyman  is  there  at  the  same 
time  a  sorcerer,  a  prophet,  a  quack  (alipies).  Even  when  the  patri- 
arch comes  to  Egypt  some  demand  that  he  pray  to  Sarapis,  others 
that  he  pray  to  Christ."  This  diatribe  is  certainly  connected  with 
the  circumstance  that  the  Christians  declared  the  Egyptian  god  to 
be  the  Joseph  of  the  Bible,  the  son  of  Sara,  and  rightfully  carrying 
the  bushel.  The  position  of  the  Egyptian  orthodox  party  is  appre- 
hended in  a  more  earnest  spirit  by  the  author,  belonging  presuma- 
ably  to  the  third  century^  of  the  Dialogue  of  the  Gods,  preserved  in 
a  Latin  translation  among  the  writings  attributed  to  Appuleius,  iu 
Vol.  II.— 19 


290 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


of  the  old  faith,  as  well  scientifically  in  the  philosophy  an- 
nexed to  it  as  practically  in  the  repelling  of  the  attacks 
directed  by  the  Christians  against  Polytheism,  and  in  the 
revival  of  the  heathen  temple  worship  and  the  heathen 
divination,  had  its  true  centre  in  Alexandria.  Then, 
when  the  new  faith  conquered  this  stronghold  also,  the 
character  of  the  country  remained  nevertheless  true  to  it- 
self ;  Syria  was  the  cradle  of  Christianity,  Egypt  was  the 
cradle  of  monachism.  Of  the  significance  and  the  position 
of  the  Jewish  body,  in  which  the  two  cities  likewise  re- 
sembled each  other,  we  have  already  spoken  in  another 
connection  (p.  177).  Immigrants  called  by  the  government 
into  the  land  like  the  Hellenes,  the  Jews  were  doubtless 
inferior  to  these  and  were  liable  to  poll-tax  like  the  Egyp- 
tians, but  accounted  themselves,  and  were  accounted,  more 
than  these.  Their  number  amounted  under  Vespasian  to 
a  million,  about  the  eighth  part  of  the  whole  population 
of  Egypt,  and,  like  the  Hellenes,  they  dwelt  chiefly  in  the 

wMch  tlie  thrice-greatest  Hermes  announces  things  future  to  As- 
klepios :  "  Tliou  knowest  witlial,  Asklepios,  that  Egypt  is  a  counter- 
part of  heaven,  or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  a  transmigration  and  de- 
scent of  the  whole  heavenly  administration  and  activity  ;  indeed,  to 
speak  still  more  correctly,  our  fatherland  is  the  temple  of  the  whole 
universe.  And  yet  a  time  will  set  in,  when  it  would  appear  as  if 
Egypt  had  vainly  with  pious  mind  in  diligent  service  cherished  the 
divine,  when  all  sacred  worship  of  the  gods  will  be  without  result 
and  a  failure.  For  the  deity  will  betake  itself  back  into  heaven, 
Egypt  will  be  forsaken,  and  the  land,  which  was  the  seat  of  relig- 
ious worships,  will  be  deprived  of  the  presence  of  divine  power  and 
left  to  its  own  resources.  Then  will  this  consecrated  land,  the  abode 
of  shrines  and  temples,  be  d««isely  filled  with  graves  and  corpses. 
O  Egypt,  Egypt,  of  thy  worships  only  rumours  will  preserved, 
and  even  these  will  seem  incredible  to  thy  coming  generations,  only 
words  will  be  preserved  on  the  stones  to  tell  of  thy  pious  deeds,  and 
Egypt  will  be  inhabited  by  the  Scythian  or  Indian  or  other  such 
from  the  neighbouring  barbarian  land.  New  rights  will  be  intro- 
duced, a  new  law,  nothing  holy,  nothing  religious,  nothing  worthy 
of  heaven  and  of  the  celestials  will  be  heard  or  in  spirit  believed. 
A  painful  separation  of  the  gods  from  men  sets  in  ;  only  the  bad 
angels  remain  there,  to  mingle  among  mankind  "  (according  to  Ber- 
nays's  translation,  Ge8,  Abh.  i.  330). 


Chap.  XII.]  Egy][>t,  291 

capital,  of  the  five  wards  of  wliicli  two  were  Jewish.  In  ac- 
knowledged independence,  in  repute,  culture,  and  wealth, 
the  body  of  Alexandrian  Jews  was  even  before  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  the  first  in  the  world  ;  and  in  conse- 
quence of  this  a  good  part  of  the  last  act  of  the  Jewish 
tragedy,  as  has  been  already  set  forth,  was  played  out  on 
Egyptian  soil. 

Alexandria  and  Antioch  were  pre-eminently  seats  of 
wealthy  merchants  and  manufacturers  ;  but  in 

The  Ic&imcd  • 

world  of         Antioch  there  was  wanting  the  seaport  and  its 

Alexandria.        i    i        •  t  i  j*     •  jj 

belongings,  and,  however  stirring  matters  were 
on  the  streets  there,  they  bore  no  comparison  with  the 
life  and  doings  of  the  Alexandrian  artisans  and  sailors. 
On  the  other  hand,  for  enjoyment  of  life,  dramatic  spec- 
tacles, dining,  pleasures  of  love,  Antioch  had  more  to  offer 
than  the  city  in  which  "no  one  went  idle."  Literary  pur- 
suits proper,  linking  themselves  especially  with  the  rhe- 
torical exhibitions — such  as  we  sketched  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  Asia  Minor — fell  into  the  background  in  Egypt,' 
doubtless  more  amidst  the  pressure  of  the  affairs  of 
the  day  than  through  the  influence  of  the  numerous  and 
well-paid  savants  living  in  Alexandria,  and  in  great  part 
natives  of  it.  These  men  of  the  Museum,  of  whom  we 
shall  have  to  speak  further  on,  did  not  prominently  affect 
the  character  of  the  town  as  a  whole,  especially  if  they  did 
their  duty  in  diligent  work.  But  the  Alexandrian  physi- 
cians were  regarded  as  the  best  in  the  whole  empire  ;  it  is 
true  that  Egypt  was  no  less  the  genuine  home  of  quacks 
and  of  secret  remedies,  and  of  that  strange  civilised  form 

1  When  the  Romans  ask  from  the  famous  rhetor  Proaeresios 
(end  of  the  third  and  beginning  of  the  fourth  century)  one  of  his 
disciples  for  a  professorial  chair,  he  sends  to  them  Eusebius  from 
Alexandria;  *'as  respects  rhetoric,"  it  is  said  of  the  latter  (Euna- 
pius,  Proaer.  p.  92  Boiss.),  ''it  is  enough  to  say  that  he  was  an 
Egyptian  ;  for  this  people,  no  doubt,  pursues  versemaking  passion- 
ately, but  earnest  oratory  (6  aTrovSa7os  "Epju-qs)  is  not  at  home  among 
them.''  The  remarkable  resumption  of  Greek  poetry  in  Egypt,  to 
which,  e.g.  the  epic  of  Nonnus  belongs,  lies  beyond  the  bounds  of 
our  narrative. 


292 


Egyp, 


[Book  YIII; 


of  the  "shepherd-medicine,"  in  which  pious  simplicity 
and  speculating  deceit  draped  themselves  in  the  mantle 
of  science.  Of  the  thrice-greatest  Hermes  we  have  already 
made  mention  (p.  283) ;  the  Alexandrian  Serapis,  too, 
wrought  more  marvellous  cures  in  antiquity  than  any  one 
of  his  colleagues,  and  he  infected  even  the  practical  em- 
peror Vespasian,  so  that  he  too  healed  the  blind  and  lame, 
but  only  in  Alexandria. 

Although  the  place  which  Alexandria  occupies,  or  seems 
to  occupy,  in  the  intellectual  and  literary  de- 
iSandria. vclopmcnt  of  the  later  Greece  and  of  Occi- 
dental culture  generally  cannot  be  fitly  esti- 
mated in  a  description  of  the  local  circumstances  of  Egypt, 
but  only  in  the  delineation  of  this  development  itself,  the 
Alexandrian  scholarship  and  its  continuation  under  the 
Eoman  government  are  too  remarkable  a  phenomenon  not 
to  have  its  general  position  touched  on  in  this  connection. 
We  have  already  observed  (p.  138)  that  the  blending  of 
the  Oriental  and  the  Hellenic  intellectual  world  was  ac- 
complished pre-eminently  in  Egypt  alongside  of  Syria  ; 
and  if  the  new  faith  which  was  to  conquer  the  West  issued 
from  Syria,  the  science  homogeneous  with  it — that  phi- 
losophy which,  alongside  of  and  beyond  the  human  mind, 
acknowledges  and  proclaims  the  supra-mundane  God  and 
the  divine  revelation — came  pre-eminently  from  Egypt: 
probably  already  the  new  Pythagoreanism,  certainly  the 
philosophic  Neo- Judaism — of  which  we  have  formerly 
spoken  (p.  185) — as  well  as  the  new  Platonism,  whose 
founder,  the  Egyptian  Plotinus,  was  likewise  already 
mentioned  (p.  138).  Upon  this  interpenetration  of  Hel- 
lenic and  Oriental  elements,  that  was  carried  out  especially 
in  Alexandria,  mainly  depends  the  fact,  that — as  falls  to 
be  set  forth  more  fully  in  surveying  the  state  of  things  in 
Italy — the  Hellenism  there  in  the  earlier  imperial  period 
bears  pre-eminently  an  Egyptian  form.  As  the  old-new 
wisdoms  associated  with  Pythagoras,  Moses,  Plato,  pene- 
trated from  Alexandria  into  Italy,  so  Isis  and  her  belong- 
ings played  the  first  part  in  the  easy,  fashionable  piety, 


Chap.  XII.]  ^'gypt^  293 

which  the  Roman  poets  of  the  Augustan  age  and  the 
Pompeian  temples  from  that  of  Claudius  exhibit  to  us. 
Art  as  practised  in  Egypt  prevails  in  the  Campanian  fres- 
coes of  the  same  epoch,  as  in  the  Tiburtine  villa  of  Ha- 
drian. In  keeping  with  this  is  the  position  which  Alex- 
andrian erudition  occupies  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
imperial  period.  Outwardly  it  is  based  on  the  care  of  the 
state  for  intellectual  interests,  and  would  with  more  war- 
rant link  itself  to  the  name  of  Alexander  than  to  that  of 
Alexandria  ;  it  is  the  realisation  of  the  thought  that  in  a 
certain  stage  of  civilisation  art  and  science  must  be  sup- 
ported and  promoted  by  the  authority  and  the  resources 
of  the  state,  the  consistent  sequel  of  the  brilliant  moment 
in  the  world's  history  which  placed  Alexander  and  Aristotle 
side  by  side.  It  is  not  our  intention  here  to  inquire  how 
in  this  mighty  conception  truth  and  error,  the  injuring 
and  elevating  of  the  intellectual  life,  became  mingled,  nor 
is  the  scanty  after-bloom  of  the  divine  singing  and  of  the 
high  thinking  of  the  free  Hellenes  to  be  once  more  placed 
side  by  side  with  the  rank  and  yet  also  noble  produce  of 
the  later  collecting,  investigating,  and  arranging.  If  the 
institutions  which  sprang  from  this  thought  could  not, 
or,  what  was  worse,  could  only  apparently,  renew  to  the 
Greek  nation  what  was  irrecoverably  lost,  they  granted  to 
it  on  the  still  free  arena  of  the  intellectual  world  the  only 
possible  compensation,  and  that,  too,  a  glorious  one.  For 
us  the  local  circumstances  are  above  all  to  be  taken  into 
account.  Artificial  gardens  are  in  some  measure  indepen- 
dent of  the  soil,  and  it  is  not  otherwise  with  these  scien- 
tific institutions  ;  only  that  they  from  their  nature  are 
directed  towards  the  courts.  Material  support  may  be 
imparted  to  them  otherwise  ;  but  more  important  than 
this  is  the  favour  of  the  highest  circles,  which  swells  their 
sails,  and  the  connections,  which,  meeting  together  in  the 
great  centres,  replenish  and  extend  these  circles  of  science. 
In  the  better  time  of  the  monarchies  of  Alexander  there 
were  as  many  such  centres  as  there  were  states,  and  that 
of  the  Lagid  court  was  only  the  most  highly-esteemed 


294 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


among  them.  The  Roman  repubhc  had  brought  the 
others  one  after  another  into  its  power,  and  had  set  aside 
with  the  courts  also  the  scientific  institutes  and  circles 
belonging  to  them.  The  fact  that  the  future  Augustus, 
when  he  did  away  with  the  last  of  these  courts,  allowed 
the  learned  institutes  connected  with  it  to  subsist,  is  a 
genuine,  and  not  the  worst,  indication  of  the  changed 
times.  The  more  energetic  and  higher  Philhellenism  of 
the  government  of  the  Caesars  was  distinguished  to  its 
advantage  from  that  of  the  republic  by  the  fact  that  it  not 
merely  allowed  Greek  literati  to  earn  money  in  Rome, 
but  viewed  and  treated  the  great  guardianship  of  Greek 
science  as  a  part  of  the  sovereignty  of  Alexander.  No 
doubt,  as  in  this  regeneration  of  the  empire  as  a  whole, 
the  building-plan  was  grander  than  the  building.  The 
royally  patented  and  pensioned  Muses,  whom  the  Lagids 
had  called  to  Alexandria,  did  not  disdain  to  accept  the 
like  payments  also  from  the  Romans ;  and  the  imperial 
munificence  was  not  inferior  to  the  earlier  regal.  The 
funds  of  the  library  of  Alexandria  and  the  fund  of  free 
places  for  philosophers,  poets,  physicians,  and  scholars  of 
all  sorts,  ^  as  well  as  the  immunities  granted  to  these,  were 
not  diminished  by  Augustus,  and  were  increased  by  the 
emperor  Claudius — with  the  injunction,  indeed,  that  the 

1  A  "Homeric  poet"  Ik  Mova-elov  is  ready  to  sing  the  praise  of 
Memnon  in  four  Homeric  verses,  without  adding  a  word  of  his 
own  {C.  I.  Or.  4748).  Hadrian  makes  an  Alexandrian  poet  a  mem- 
ber in  reward  for  a  loyal  epigram  (Athenaeus,  xv.  p.  677  e).  Ex- 
amples of  rhetors  from  Hadrian's  time  may  be  seen  in  Philostratus, 
Vit.  Soph.  i.  25,  3  c.  25,  3.  A  (piXoffocpos  airh  Movaelov  in  Halicar- 
nassus  {Bull  de  corr.  Hell.  iv.  405).  At  a  later  period,  when  the 
circus  was  everything,  we  find  a  noted  pugilist — perhaps,  one  may 
say — as  an  honorary  member  of  the  philosophical  class  (inscription 
from  Rome,  C.  1.  Gr.  5914:  veu)K6po$  tqv  ixi'y6.\Kov'2,apaTTLS\os  koX  rwv 
€u  rq}  Movaeicf  [crctTOujyueVajj'  areAwu  <piXocr6(p(DV  ;  comp.  ih.  4724,  and 
Firmicus  Maternus,  de  errore  prof.  rel.  13,  3).  Oi  iv  'E</)e<r^  airh 
Tov  Mova-elov  larpoi  (Wood,  EpTiesus  inscriptions  from  tombs,  n.  7),  a 
society  of  Ephesian  physicians,  have  relation  doubtless  to  the  Mu- 
seum at  Alexandria,  but  were  hardly  members  of  it ;  they  were 
rather  trained  in  it. 


Chap.  XIL] 


Egypt. 


295 


Bew  Claudian  academicians  should  have  the  Greek  histori- 
cal works  of  the  singular  founder  publicly  read  year  by 
year  in  their  sittings.  With  the  first  library  in  the  world 
Alexandria  retained  at  the  same  time,  through  the  whole 
imperial  period,  a  certain  primacy  of  scientific  work,  until 
Islam  burnt  the  library  and  killed  the  ancient  civilisation. 
It  was  not  merely  the  opportunity  thus  offered,  but  at  the 
same  time  the  old  tradition  and  turn  of  mind  of  these 
Hellenes,  which  preserved  for  the  city  that  precedence,  as 
indeed  among  the  scholars  the  native  Alexandrians  are 
prominent  in  number  and  importance.  In  this  epoch 
numerous  and  respectable  labours  of  erudition,  particu 
larly  philological  and  physical,  proceeded  from  the  circle 
of  the  savants  "  of  the  Museum,"  as  they  entitled  them- 
selves, like  the  Parisians  "  of  the  Institute "  ;  but  the 
literary  importance,  which  the  Alexandrian  and  the  Per- 
gamene  court-science  and  court-art  had  in  the  better 
epoch  of  Hellenism  for  the  whole  Hellenic  and  Hellen- 
ising  world,  was  never  even  remotely  attached  to  the 
Komano-Alexandrian.  The  cause  lay  not  in  the  want  of 
talents  or  in  other  accidents,  least  of  all  in  the  fact  that 
places  in  the  Museum  were  bestowed  by  the  emperor 
sometimes  according  to  gifts  and  always  according  to  fa- 
vour, and  the  government  dealt  with  them  quite  as  with 
the  horse  of  the  knight  and  the  posts  of  officials  of  the 
household  ;  the  case  was  not  otherwise  at  the  older  courts. 
Court-philosophers  and  court-poets  remained  in  Alexan- 
dria, but  not  the  court ;  it  was  here  very  clearly  appar- 
ent that  the  main  matter  was  not  pensions  and  rewards, 
but  the  contact — quickening  for  both  sides — of  great  poli- 
tical and  great  scientific  work.  The  latter  doubtless  pre- 
sented itself  for  the  new  monarchy  and  brought  its  conse- 
quences with  it  ;  but  the  place  for  it  was  not  Alexandria  : 
this  bloom  of  political  development  justly  belonged  to  the 
Latins  and  to  the  Latin  capital.  The  Augustan  poetry 
and  Augustan  science  attained,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, to  a  similar  important  and  pleasing  development 
with  that  attained-  by  the  Hellenistic  at  the  court  of 


296 


[Book  VIII. 


the  Pergamenes  and  the  earlier  Ptolemies.  Even  in  the 
Greek  circle,  so  far  as  the  Koman  government  operated 
upon  it  in  the  sense  of  the  Lagids,  this  development  was 
linked  more  with  Eome  than  with  Alexandria.  It  is  true 
that  the  Greek  libraries  of  the  capital  were  not  equal  to 
the  Alexandrian,  and  there  was  no  institute  in  Rome 
comparable  to  the  Alexandrian  Museum.  But  a  position 
at  the  Eoman  libraries  opened  up  relations  to  the  court. 
The  professorship  of  Greek  rhetoric  in  the  capital,  insti- 
tuted by  Vespasian,  filled  up  and  paid  for  by  the  govern- 
ment, gave  to  its  holder,  although  he  was  not  an  o£&cer  of 
the  household  in  the  same  sense  as  the  imperial  librarian, 
a  similar  position,  and  was  regarded,  doubtless  on  that 
account,  as  the  chief  professorial  chair  of  the  empire.' 
But,  above  all,  the  office  of  imperial  cabinet  secretary  in 
its  Greek  division  was  the  most  esteemed  and  the  most 
influential  position  to  which  a  Greek  man  of  letters  could 
at  all  attain.  Transference  from  the  Alexandrian  acad- 
emy to  such  an  office  in  the  capital  was  demonstrably 
promotion.^  Even  apart  from  all  which  the  Greek  literati 
otherwise  found  in  Rome  alone,  the  court-positions  and 
the  court-offices  were  enough  to  draw  the  most  distin- 
guished of  them  thither  rather  than  to  the  Egyptian  "free 
table."  The  learned  Alexandria  of  this  time  became  a  sort 
of  "jointure"  of  Greek  science,  worthy  of  respect  and 
useful,  but  of  no  pervading  influence  on  the  great  move- 
ment of  culture  or  mis-culture  of  the  imperial  period  ; 
the  places  in  the  Museum  were,  as  was  reasonable,  not 
seldom  bestowed  on  scholars  of  note  from  abroad,  and 
for  the  institution  itself  the  books  of  the  library  were  of 

*  'O  hxa  6p6vos  in  Philostratus,  Vit.  Soph.  ii.  10,  5. 

"  Examples  are  Chaeremon,  the  teacher  of  Nero,  previously  in- 
stalled in  Alexandria  (Suidas,  Aiovvaios  'AA.e|ai/5peus ;  comp.  Zeller, 
Hermes,  xi.  430,  and  above,  p.  282) ;  Dionysius,  son  of  Glaucus,  at 
first  in  Alexandria,  successor  of  Chaeremon,  then  from  Nero  down 
to  Trajan  librarian  in  Rome  and  imperial  cabinet  secretary  (Suidas, 
I.e.) ;  L.  Julius  Vestinus  under  Hadrian,  who,  even  after  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Museum,  filled  the  same  positions  as  Dionysius  in 
Rome  (p.  269  note);^  known  also  as  a  philological  author. 


Chap.  XII.]  Egypt,  ' 

more  account  than  the  burgesses  of  the  great  commercial 
and  manufacturing  city. 


The  military  circumstances  of  Egypt  laid  down,  just  as 
in  Syria,  a  double  task  for  the  troops  there  ; 
Irmy^^''''''^''  the  protcctiou  of  the  south  frontier  and  of  the 
east  coast,  which  indeed  may  not  be  remotely 
compared  with  that  required  for  the  line  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  the  maintenance  of  internal  order  in  the  country  as 
in  the  capital.  The  Eoman  garrison  consisted,  apart  from 
the  ships  stationed  at  Alexandria  and  on  the  Nile,  which 
seem  chiefly  to  have  served  for  the  control  of  the  customs, 
under  Augustus  of  three  legions,  along  with  the  not  nu- 
merous auxiliary  troops  belonging  to  them,  about  20,000 
men.  This  was  about  half  as  many  as  he  destined  for  all 
the  Asiatic  provinces — which  was  in  keeping  with  the  im- 
portance of  this  province  for  the  new  monarchy.  But  the 
occupying  force  was  probably  even  under  Augustus  him- 
self diminished  about  a  third,  and  then  under  Domitian 
by  about  a  further  third.  At  first  two  legions  were  sta- 
tioned outside  of  the  capital ;  but  the  main  camp,  and 
soon  the  only  one,  lay  before  its  gates,  where  Caesar  the 
younger  had  fought  out  the  last  battle  with  Antonius,  in 
the  suburb  called  accordingly  Nicopolis.  The  suburb  had 
its  own  amphitheatre  and  its  own  imperial  popular  festi- 
val, and  was  quite  independently  organised  ;  so  that  for  a 
time  the  public  amusements  of  Alexandria  were  thrown 
into  the  shade  by  those  of  Nicopolis.  The  immediate 
watching  of  the  frontier  fell  to  the  auxiliaries.  The  same 
causes  therefore  which  relaxed  discipline  in  Syria — the 
police-character  of  their  primary  task  and  their  immediate 
contact  with  the  great  capital — came  into  play  also  for  the 
Egyptian  troops ;  to  which  fell  to  be  added,  that  the  bad 
custom  of  allowing  to  the  soldiers  with  the  standards  a 
married  life  or  at  any  rate  a  substitute  for  it,  and  of  filling 
up  the  troop  from  their  camp-children,  had  for  long  been 
naturahsed  among  the  Macedonian  soldiers  of  the  Ptole- 


298 


Egypt 


[Book  VIII. 


mies,  and  soon  prevailed  also  among  the  Eomans,  at  least 
up  to  a  certain  degree.  Accordingly,  the  Egyptian  corps, 
in  which  the  Occidentals  served  still  more  rarely  than  in 
the  other  armies  of  the  East,  and  which  was  recruited  in 
great  part  from  the  citizens  and  the  camp  of  Alexandria, 
appears  to  have  been  among  all  the  sections  of  the  army 
the  least  esteemed  ;  as  indeed  also  the  officers  of  this 
legion,  as  was  already  observed,  were  inferior  in  rank  to 
those  of  the  rest. 

The  properly  military  task  of  the  Egyptian  troops  was 
closely  connected  with  the  measures  for  the  elevation  of 
Egyptian  commerce.  It  will  be  convenient  to  take  the 
two  together,  and  to  set  forth  in  connection,  in  the  first 
instance,  the  relations  to  the  continental  neighbours  in  the 
south,  and  then  those  to  Arabia  and  India. 

Egypt  reaches  on  the  south,  as  was  already  remarked, 
as  far  as  the  barrier  which  the  last  cataract, 
Aethiopia.  from  Sycuc  (Assouan),  opposes  to  nav- 

igation. Beyond  Syene  begins  the  stock  of  the  Kesch,  as 
the  Egyptians  call  them,  or,  as  the  Greeks  translated  it, 
the  dark-coloured,  the  Aethiopians,  probably  akin  to  the 
Axomites  to  be  afterwards  mentioned,  and,  although  per- 
haps sprung  from  the  same  root  as  the  Egyptians,  at  any 
rate  confronting  them  in  historical  development  as  a  for- 
eign people.  Further  to  the  south  follow  the  Nahsiu  of 
the  Egyptians,  that  is,  the  Blacks,  the  Nubians  of  the  Greek, 
the  modern  Negroes.  The  kings  of  Egypt  had  in  better 
times  extended  their  rule  far  into  the  interior,  or  at  least 
emigrant  Egyptians  had  established  for  themselves  here 
dominions  of  their  own  ;  the  written  monuments  of  the 
Pharaonic  government  go  as  far  as  above  the  third  cata- 
ract to  Dongola,  where  Nabata  (near  Nilri)  seems  to  have 
been  the  centre  of  their  settlements  ;  and  considerably 
further  up  the  stream,  some  six  days'  journey  to  the  north 
of  Khartoum,  near  Shendy,  in  Sennaar,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  long  forgotten  Aethiopian  town  Meroe,  are 
found  groups  of  temples  and  pyramids,  although  destitute 
of  writing.    When  Egypt  became  Roman,  all  this  devel- 


Chap.  XII.]  Egypt  299 

opment  of  power  was  long  a  matter  of  the  past ;  and  be- 
yond Syene  there  ruled  an  Aethiopian  stock  under  queens, 
who  regularly  bore  the  name  or  the  title  Candace,'  and 
resided  in  that  once  Egyptian  Nabata  in  Dongola  ;  a  peo- 
ple at  a  low  stage  of  civilisation,  predominantly  shepherds, 
in  a  position  to  bring  into  the  field  an  army  of  30,000,  but 
equipped  with  shields  of  ox-hides,  armed  mostly  not  with 
swords,  but  with  axes  or  lances  and  iron-mounted  clubs, 
predatory  neighbours,  not  a  match  for  the  Romans  in 

combat.  In  the  year  730  or  731  these  invaded 
■<i4, 23.  Roman  territory — as  they  asserted,  because 

the  presidents  of  the  nearest  nomes  had  injured  them — 
as  the  Romans  thought,  because  the  Egyptian  troops  were 
then  to  a  large  extent  occupied  in  Arabia,  and  they  hoped 
to  be  able  to  plunder  with  immunity.    In  reality  they 

overcame  the  three  cohorts  who  covered  the 
SndS?'^''^^''  frontier,  and  dragged  away  the  inhabitants 

from  the  nearest  Egyptian  districts — Philae, 
Elephantine,  Syene — as  slaves,  and  the  statues  of  the  em- 
peror, which  they  found  there,  as  tokens  of  victory.  But 
the  governor,  who  just  then  took  up  the  administration  of 
the  province.  Gains  Petronius,  speedily  requited  the  at- 
tack ;  with  10,000  infantry  and  800  cavalry  he  not  merely 
drove  them  out,  but  followed  them  along  the  Nile  into 
their  own  land,  defeated  them  emphatically  at  Pselchis 
(Dekkeh),  and  stormed  their  stronghold  Premis  (Ibrim), 
as  well  as  the  capital  itself,  which  he  destroyed.  It  is  true 
that  the  queen,  a  brave  woman,  i^enewed  the  attack  next 
year  and  attempted  to  storm  Premis,  where  a  Roman  gar- 
rison had  been  left ;  but  Petronius  brought  seasonable 
relief,  and  so  the  Aethiopian  queen  determined  to  send 
envoys  and  to  sue  for  peace.  The  emperor  not  merely 
granted  it,  but  gave  orders  to  evacuate  the  subject  terri- 
tory, and  rejected  the  proposal  of  his  governor  to  make 
the  vanquished  tributary.    This  event,  otherwise  not  im- 

^  The  eunuch,  of  Candace,  who  reads  in  Isaiah  (Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles, viii.  27)  is  well  known  ;  and  a  Candace  reigned  also  in  Nero's 
time  (Plinius,  H.  N.  vi.  29,  182). 


300 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


portant,  is  remarkable  in  so  far  as  just  then  the  definite 
resolution  of  the  Roman  government  became  apparent,  to 
maintain  absolutely  the  Nile  valley  as  far  as  the  river  vsras 
navigable,  but  not  at  all  to  contemplate  taking  possession 
of  the  wide  districts  on  the  upper  Nile.  Only  the  tract 
from  Syene,  where  under  Augustus  the  frontier-troops 
were  stationed,  as  far  as  Hiera  Sycaminos  (Maharraka), 
the  so-called  Twelve-mile-land  (AwSeKao-xtovos),  while  never 
organised  as  a  nome  and  never  viewed  as  a  part  of  Egypt, 
was  yet  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  empire  ;  and  at  least 
under  Domitian  the  posts  were  even  advanced  as  far  as 
Hiera  Sycaminos. '  On  that  footing  substantially  the  mat- 
ter remained.  The  Oriental  expedition  planned  by  Nero 
(p.  65)  was  certainly  intended  to  embrace  Aethiopia  ;  but 
it  did  not  go  beyond  the  preliminary  reconnoitring  of  the 

'  That  tlie  imperial  frontier  reached  to  Hiera  Sycaminos,  is  evi- 
dent for  the  second  century  from  Ptolemaeus,  v.  5,  74,  for  the  time 
of  Diocletian  from  the  Itineraries,  which  carry  the  imperial  roads 
thus  far.  In  the  Notitia  dignitatum^  a  century  later,  the  posts  again 
do  not  reach  beyond  Syene,  Philae,  Elephantine.  In  the  tract  from 
Philae  to  Hiera  Sycaminos,  the  Dodecaschoinos  of  Herodotus  (ii. 
29)  temple-tribute  appears  to  have  been  raised  already  in  early 
times  for  the  Isis  of  Philae  always  common  to  the  Egyptians  and 
Aethiopians  ;  but  Greek  inscriptions  from  the  Lagid  period  have  not 
been  found  here,  whereas  numerous  dated  ones  occur  from  the  So- 
man period,  the  oldest  from  the  time  of  Augustus  (Pselchis,  2  A.d.  ; 
a  I.  Or.  n.  5086),  and  of  Tiberius  {ih.  26  A.D.,  n.  5104,  33  A.D.,  n. 
5101),  the  most  recent  from  that  of  Philippus  (Kardassi,  248  a.d., 
n.  5010).  These  do  not  prove  absolutely  that  the  place  where  the 
inscription  was  found  belonged  to  the  empire  ;  but  that  of  a  land- 
measuring  soldier  of  the  year  33  (n.  5101),  and  that  of  apraesidi- 
um  of  the  year  84  (Talmis,  n.  5042  f.),  as  well  as  numerous  others 
certainly  presuppose  it.  Beyond  the  frontier  indicated  no  similar 
stone  has  ever  been  found ;  for  the  remarkable  inscription  of  the 
regina  (C.  L  L.  iii.  83),  found  at  Messaurat,  to  the  south  of  Shendy 
(16°  25'  lat.,  5  leagues  to  the  south  of  the  ruins  of  Naga),  the  most 
southern  of  all  known  Latin  inscriptions,  now  in  the  Berlin  Museum, 
has  been  set  up,  not  by  a  Roman  subject,  but  presumably  by  an 
envoy  of  an  African  queen,  who  was  returning  from  Rome,  and 
who  spoke  Latin  perhaps  only  in  order  to  show  that  he  had  been  in 
Rome. 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egyp. 


301 


country  by  Roman  officers  as  far  as  Meroe.  The  relations 
with  the  neighbours  on  the  Egyptian  southern  frontier 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  third  century  must  have  been 
on  the  whole  of  a  peaceful  kind,  although  there  were  not 
wanting  minor  quarrels  with  that  Candace  and  with  her 
successors,  who  appear  to  have  maintained  their  position 
for  a  considerable  time,  and  subsequently  perhaps  with 
other  tribes,  that  attained  to  ascendency  beyond  the  im- 
perial bounds. 

It  was  not  till  the  empire  was  unhinged  in  the  period  of 
Valerian  and  Gallienus,  that  the  neighbours 
TheBiemyes.  j-j^Qj^g  ovcr  this  boundary.  We  have  already 
mentioned  (p.  272)  that  the  Blemyes  settled  in  the  moun- 
tains on  the  south-east  frontier,  formerly  obeying  the 
Aethiopians,  a  barbarous  people  of  revolting  savageness, 
who  even  centuries  later  had  not  abandoned  human  sacri- 
fices, advanced  at  this  epoch  independently  against  Egypt, 
and  by  an  understanding  with  the  Palmyrenes  occupied  a 
good  part  of  upper  Egypt,  and  held  it  for  a  series  of  years. 
The  vigorous  emperor  Probus  drove  them  out  ;  but  the 
inroads  once  begun  did  not  cease,  ^  and  the  emperor  Dio- 
cletian resolved  to  draw  back  the  frontier.  The  narrow 
"  Twelve-mile-land "  demanded  a  strong  garrison,  and 
brought  in  little  to  the  state.  The  Nubians,  who  roamed 
in  the  Libyan  desert,  and  were  constantly  visiting  in  par- 
ticular the  great  Oasis,  agreed  to  give  up  their  old  abodes 
and  to  settle  in  this  region,  which  was  formally  ceded  to 

'  The  tropaea  Niliaca,  sub  quihus  AetMops  et  Indus  intremuit,  in 
an  oration  probably  held  in  the  year  296  (Paneg.  v.  5),  apply  to  such 
a  rencontre,  not  to  the  Egyptian  insurrection  ;  and  the  oration  of 
the  year  289  speaks  of  attacks  of  the  Blemyes  (Paneg.  iii.  17). — 
Procopius,  Bell.  Pers.  i.  19,  reports  the  cession  of  the  "Twelve-mile- 
territory  "  to  the  Nubians.  It  is  mentioned  as  standing  under  the 
dominion,  not  of  the  Nubians,  but  of  the  Blemyes  by  Olympiodorus, 
fr.  37,  Miill.  and  the  inscription  of  Silko,  G.  I.  Gr.  5072.  The 
fragment  recently  brought  to  light  of  a  Greek  heroic  poem  as  to  the 
victory  of  a  late  Roman  emperor  over  the  Blemyes  is  referred  by 
Biicheler  {Rhein.  Mus.  xxxix.  279  f.)  to  that  of  Marcianus,  in  the 
year  451  (comp.  Prisons,  fr.  27). 


302 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


them  ;  at  the  same  time  fixed  annual  payments  were  made 
to  them  as  well  as  to  their  eastern  neighbours  the  Blemyes, 
nominally  in  order  to  compensate  them  for  guarding  the 
frontier,  in  reality  beyond  doubt  to  buy  off  their  plunder- 
ing expeditions,  which  nevertheless  of  course  did  not  cease. 
It  was  a  retrograde  step — the  first,  since  Egypt  became 
Eoman. 

Of  the  mercantile  intercourse  on  this  frontier  little  is 

reported  from  antiquity.  As  the  cataracts  of 
4?rciafimffir'tlie  upper  Nile  closed  the  direct  route  by 

water,  the  traffic  between  the  interior  of  Africa 
and  the  Egyptians,  particularly  the  trade  in  ivory,  was 
carried  on  in  the  Roman  period  more  by  way  of  the  Abys- 
sinian ports  than  along  the  Nile  ;  but  it  was  not  wanting 
also  in  this  direction.^  The  Aethiopians  who  dwelt  in 
numbers  beside  the  Egyptians  on  the  island  of  Philae  were 
evidently  mostly  merchants,  and  the  border-peace  that  here 
prevailed  must  have  contributed  its  part  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  frontier-towns  of  upper  Egypt  and  of  Egyptian 
trade  generally. 

The  east  coast  of  Egypt  presented  to  the  development 

of  general  traffic  a  problem  difficult  of  solution, 
ea^t  5)St  aSd  The  thoroughly  desolate  and  rocky  shore  was 
mTrce!^  iucapablc  of  culture  proper,  and  in  ancient  as 

in  later  times  a  desert.^  On  the  other  hand 
the  two  seas,  eminently  important  for  the  development  of 
culture  in  the  ancient  world,  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Red  or  Indian,  approach  each  other  most  closely  at  the 
two  most  northern  extremities  of  the  latter,  the  Persian 
and  the  Arabian  gulfs  ;  the  former  receives  into  it  the 
Euphrates,  which  in  the  middle  of  its  course  comes  near 
to  the  Mediterranean  ;  the  latter  is  only  a  few  days'  march 
distant  from  the  Nile,  which  flows  into  the  same  sea. 

'  Juvenal  (xi.  124)  mentions  the  elephant's  teeth,  quos  mittit porta 
Syenes. 

^  According  to  the  mode  in  which  Ptolemy  (iv.  5,  14,  15)  treats  of 
this  coast,  it  seems,  just  like  the  "Twelve-mile-land,"  to  have  lain 
outside  of  the  division  into  nomes. 


ClIAP.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


303 


Hence  in  ancient  times  the  commercial  intercourse  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  West  took  preponderantly  either 
the  direction  along  the  Euphrates  to  the  Syrian  and 
Arabian  coast,  or  it  made  its  way  from  the  east  coast  of 
Egypt  to  the  Nile.  The  traffic  routes  from  the  Euphrates 
were  older  than  those  by  way  of  the  Nile  ;  but  the  latter 
had  the  advantage  of  the  stream  being  better  for  navigation 
and  of  the  shorter  land-transport ;  the  getting  rid  of  the 
latter  by  preparing  an  artificial  water-route  was  in  the  case 
of  the  Euphrates  excluded,  in  that  of  Egypt  found  in 
ancient  as  in  modern  times  difficult  doubtless,  but  not  im- 
possible. Accordingly  nature  itself  prescribed  to  the  land 
of  Egypt  to  connect  the  east  coast  with  the  course  of  the 
Nile  and  the  northern  coast  by  land  or  water  routes  ;  and 
the  beginnings  of  such  structures  go  back  to  the  time  of 
those  native  rulers  who  first  opened  up  Egypt  to  foreign 
countries  and  to  traffic  on  a  great  scale.  Following  in  the 
traces  apparently  of  older  structures  of  the 
^o\'n™''  great  rulers  of  Egypt,  Sethi  I.  and  Khamses 
n.,  kingNecho,  the  son  of  Psammetichus  (610- 
594  B.C.)  began  the  building  of  a  canal,  which,  branching 
off  from  the  Nile  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cairo,  was  to  fur- 
nish a  water-communication  with  the  bitter  lakes  near 
Ismailia,  and  through  these  with  the  Eed  Sea,  without 
being  able,  however,  to  complete  the  work.  That  in  this 
he  had  in  view  not  merely  the  control  of  the  Arabian  Gulf 
and  the  commercial  traffic  with  the  Arabians,  but  already 
brought  within  his  horizon  the  Persian  and  the  Indian 
seas,  and  the  more  remote  East,  is  probable,  for  this  rea- 
son, that  the  same  ruler  suggested  the  only  circumnavi- 
gation of  Africa  executed  in  antiquity.  Beyond  doubt 
this  was  for  king  Darius  I.,  the  lord  of  Persia  as  well  as  of 
Egypt  ;  he  completed  the  canal,  but,  as  his  memorial- 
stones  found  on  the  spot  mention,  he  caused  it  to  be  filled 
up  again,  probably  because  his  engineers  feared  that  the 
water  of  the  sea,  admitted  into  the  canal,  would  overflow 
the  fields  of  Egypt. 

The  rivalry  of  the  Lagids  and  the  Seleucids,  which 


304 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


dominated  the  policy  of  the  post- Alexandrine  period  gen- 
erally, was  at  the  same  time  a  contest  between  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Nile.  The  former  was  in  possession, 
the  latter  the  pretender ;  and  in  the  better  time  of  the 
Lagids  the  peaceful  offensive  was  pursued  with  great 
energy.  Not  only  was  that  canal  undertaken  by  Necho 
and  Darius,  now  named  the  "  river  of  Ptolemaeus,"  opened 
for  the  first  time  to  navigation  by  the  second  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus  (f  247  e.c.)  ;  but  comprehensive  harbour- 
structures  were  carried  out  at  the  points  of  the  difficult 
east  coast  that  were  best  fitted  for  the  security  of  the  ships 
and  for  the  connection  with  the  Nile.    Above  all,  this  was 

done  at  the  mouth  of  the  canal  leading  to  the 
ea^sLSrtT    Nile,  at  the  townships  of  Arsinoe,  Cleopatris, 

Clysma,  all  three  in  the  region  of  the  present 
Suez.  Further  downward,  besides  several  minor  struct- 
ures, arose  the  two  important  emporia,  Myos  Hormos, 
somewhat  above  the  present  Koser,  and  Berenice,  in  the 
land  of  the  Trogodytes,  nearly  in  the  same  latitude  with 
Syene  on  the  Nile  as  well  as  with  the  Arabian  port  Leuce 
Come,  the  former  distant  six  or  seven,  the  latter  eleven 
days'  march  from  the  town  Coptos,  near  which  the  Nile 
bends  farthest  to  the  eastward,  and  connected  with  this 
chief  emporium  on  the  Nile  by  roads  constructed  across 
the  desert  and  provided  with  large  cisterns.  The  goods 
traffic  of  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  probably  went  less 
through  the  canal  than  by  these  land  routes  to  Coptos. 
Beyond  that  Berenice,  in  the  land  of  the  Trogodytes, 

the  Egypt  proper  of  the  Lagids  did  not  extend. 
AbyBsmia.  ^pj^g  Settlements  lying  farther  to  the  south, 
Ptolemais  *'  for  the  chase  "  below  Suakim,  and  the  south- 
most  township  of  the  Lagid  kingdom,  the  subsequent 
Adulis,  at  that  time  perhaps  named  "  Berenice  the 
Golden  "  or  "  near  Saba,"  Zula  not  far  from  the  present 
Massowah,  by  far  the  best  harbour  on  all  this  coast,  were 
not  more  than  coast-forts  and  had  no  communication  by 
land  with  Egypt.  These  remote  settlements  were  beyond 
doubt  either  lost  or  voluntarily  abandoned  under  the  later 


Chap.  XII.]  J^gypi-  S05 

Lagids,  and  at  the  epocli  when  the  Eoman  rale  began,  the 
Trogodytic  Berenice  was  on  the  coast,  like  Syene  in  the 
interior,  the  limit  of  the  empire. 

In  this  region,  never  occupied  or  early  evacuated  by  the 
Egyptians  there  was  formed — whether  at  the 
t^e^otZ.''^  end  of  the  Lagid  epoch  or  in  the  first  age  of 
the  empire — an  independent  state  of  some  ex- 
tent and  importance,  that  of  the  Axomites, '  corresponding 
to  the  modern  Habesh.  It  derives  its  name  from  the  town 
Axomis,  the  modern  Axum,  situated  in  the  heart  of  this 
Alpine  country  eight  days'  journey  from  the  sea,  in  the 
modern  country  of  Tigre  ;  the  already-mentioned  best 
emporium  on  this  coast,  Adulis  in  the  bay  of  Massowah, 
served  it  as  a  port.  The  original  population  of  the  king- 
dom of  Axomis,  of  which  tolerably  pure  remnants  still 

'  Our  best  information  as  to  the  kingdom  of  Axomis  is  obtained 
from  a  stone  erected  to  one  of  its  kings,  beyond  doubt  in  the  better 
period  of  the  empire,  at  Adulis  (C.  /.  Gr.  5127  b),  a  sort  of  writ- 
ing commemorative  of  the  deeds  of  this  apparent  empire-founder  in 
the  style  of  that  of  Darius  at  Persepolis,  or  that  of  Augustus  at  An- 
cyra,  and  fixed  on  the  king's  throne,  before  which  down  to  the  sixth 
century  criminals  were  executed.  The  skilful  disquisition  of  Dill- 
mann  (Abh.  der  Berliner  Akademie,  1877,  p.  195  f.),  explains  as 
much  of  it  as  is  explicable.  From  the  Roman  standpoint  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  king  does  not  name  the  Romans,  but  clearly  has  in 
view  their  imperial  frontiers  when  he  subdues  the  Tangaites  iJ-^xpi 
Twv  Tjjs  Alyvirrov  dp'icov,  and  constructs  a  road  airh  ruv  t^s  e/^^s  fiaffi- 
Aei'os  tSttcov  ix^xpi  AlyxtirTov,  and  further,  names  as  the  northern  limit 
of  his  Arabian  expedition  Leuce  Come,  the  last  Roman  station  on 
the  Arabian  west  coast.  Hence  it  follows  further,  that  this  inscrip- 
tion is  more  recent  than  the  Periplus  of  the  Red  Sea  written  under 
Vespasian  ;  for  according  to  this  (c.  5)  the  king  of  Axomis  rules  d-n-^ 
Tooi^  Moaxocpdycau  f^^xpi  t^s  ^AAtjs  Bap&ap'ias,  and  this  is  to  be  under- 
stood exclusively,  since  he  names  in  c.  2  the  rvpavvoi  of  the  Mos- 
cophages,  and  likewise  remarks  in  c.  14,  that  beyond  the  Straits  of 
Bab  el  Mandeb  there  is  no  "king,"  but  only  "tyrants."  Thus  at 
that  time  the  Axomitic  kingdom  did  not  reach  to  the  Roman  fron- 
tier, but  only  to  somewhere  about  Ptolemais  "  of  the  chase,"  just  as 
in  the  other  direction  not  to  Cape  Guardafui,  but  only  as  far  as  the 
Straits  of  Bab  el  Mandeb.  •  Nor  does  the  Periplus  speak  of  posses- 
sions of  the  king  of  Axomis  on  the  Arabian  coast,  although  he  on 
several  occasions  mentions  the  dynasts  there. 
Vol.  II.— 20 


306 


[Book  VIII. 


maintain  themselves  at  the  present  day  in  individual  tracts 
of  the  interior,  belonged  from  its  language,  the  Agau,  to 
the  same  Hamitic  cycle  with  the  modern  Bego,  Sali,  Dan- 
kali,  Somali,  Galla  ;  to  the  Egyptian  population  this  lin- 
guistic circle  seems  related  in  a  similar  way  as  the  Greeks 
to  the  Celts  and  Slaves,  so  that  here  doubtless  for  research 
an  affinity  may  subsist,  but  for  their  historical  existence 
rather  nothing  but  contrast.  But  before  our  knowledge 
of  this  country  so  much  as  begins,  superior  Semitic  immi- 
grants belonging  to  the  Himyaritic  stocks  of  southern 
Arabia  must  have  crossed  the  narrow  gulf  of  the  sea  and 
rendered  their  language  as  well  as  their  writing  at  home 
there.  The  old  written  language  of  Habesh,  extinct  in 
popular  use  since  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Ge'ez,  or 
as  it  is  for  the  most  part  erroneously  termed,  the  Aethi- 
opic,'  is  purely  Semitic,'  and  the  still  living  dialects,  the 
Amhara  and  the  Tigrina,  are  so  also  in  the  main,  only  dis- 
turbed by  the  influence  of  the  older  Agau. 

As  to  the  beginnings  of  this  commonwealth  no  tradition 

has  been  preserved.  At  the  end  of  Nero's 
?eldopm'enf    time,  and  perhaps  already  long  before,  the 

king  of  the  Axomites  ruled  on  the  African 
coast  nearly  from  Suakim  to  the  Straits  of  Bab  el  Mandeb. 
Some  time  afterwards — the  epoch  cannot  be  more  pre- 
cisely defined — we  find  him  as  a  frontier-neighbour  of  the 
Komans  on  the  southern  border  of  Egypt,  and  on  the 
other  coast  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  in  warlike  activity  in  the 
territory  intervening  between  the  Roman  possession  and 
that  of  the  Sabaeans,  and  so  coming  into  immediate  con- 
tact towards  the  north  with  the  Roman  territory  also  in 

'  The  name  of  tlie  Aetliiopians  was  associated  in  the  better  period 
with  the  country  on  the  Upper  Nile,  especially  with  the  kingdoms 
of  Meroe  and  Nabata  (p.  298),  and  so  with  the  region  which  we  now 
call  Nubia.  In  later  antiquity,  for  example  by  Procopius,  the  des- 
ignation is  referred  to  the  state  of  Axomis,  and  hence  in  more  re- 
cent times  is  frequently  employed  for  Abyssinia. 

^  Hence  the  legend  that  the  Axomites  were  Syrians  settled  by 
Alexander  in  Africa,  and  still  spoke  Syrian  (Philostorgius,  Hist, 
Ecd.  iii.  6), 


Chap.  XIL]  Egypt.  307 

Arabia  ;  commanding,  moreover,  the  African  coast  outside 
of  the  Gulf  perhaps  as  far  as  Cape  Guard afui.  How  far 
his  territory  of  Axomis  extended  inland  is  not  clear  ; 
Aethiopia,  that  is,  Sennaar  and  Dongola,  at  least  in  the 
earlier  imperial  period,  hardly  belonged  to  it ;  perhaps  at 
this  time  the  kingdom  of  Nabata  may  have  subsisted 
alongside  of  the  Axomitic.  Where  the  Axomites  meet 
us,  we  find  them  at  a  comparatively  advanced  stage  of  de- 
velopment. Under  Augustus  the  Egyptian  commercial 
traffic  increased  not  less  with  these  African  harbours  than 
with  India.  The  king  had  the  command  not  merely  of 
an  army,  but,  as  his  very  relations  to  Arabia  presuppose, 
also  of  a  fleet.  A  Greek  merchant,  who  was  present  in 
Adulis,  terms  king  Zoskales,  who  ruled  in  Vespasian's 
time  in  Axomis,  an  upright  man  and  acquainted  with  Greek 
writing ;  one  of  his  successors  has  set  up  on  the  spot  a 
memorial-writing  composed  in  current  Greek  which  told 
his  deeds  to  the  foreigners ;  he  even  names  himself  in  it 
a  son  of  Ares — which  title  the  kings  of  the  Axomites  re- 
tained down  to  the  fourth  century — and  dedicates  the 
throne,  which  bears  that  memorial  inscription,  to  Zeus,  to 
Ares,  and  to  Poseidon.  Already  in  Zoskales's  time  that 
foreigner  names  Adulis  a  well  organised  emporium  ;  his 
successors  compelled  the  roving  tribes  of  the  Arabian  coast 
to  keep  peace  by  land  and  by  sea,  and  restored  a  land 
communication  from  their  capital  to  the  Koman  frontier, 
which,  considering  the  nature  of  this  district  primarily  left 
dependent  on  communication  by  sea,  was  not  to  be  es- 
teemed of  slight  account.  Under  Vespasian  brass  pieces, 
which  were  divided  according  to  need,  served  the  natives 
instead  of  maney,  and  Eoman  coin  circulated  only  among 
the  strangers  settled  in  Adulis  ;  in  the  later  imperial  pe- 
riod the  kings  themselves  coined.  The  Axomite  ruler 
withal  calls  himself  king  of  kings,  and  no  trace  points  to 
Roman  clientship  ;  he  practises  coining  in  gold,  which  the 
Romans  did  not  allow,  not  merely  in  their  own  territory 
but  even  within  the  range  of  their  power.  There  was 
hardly  another  land  in  the  imperial  period  beyond  the 


308 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


Romano-Hellenic  bounds  which  had  appropriated  to  it- 
self Hellenic  habits  with  equal  independence  and  to  an 
equal  extent  as  the  state  of  Habesh.  That  in  the  course 
of  time  the  popular  language,  indigenous  or  rather  natur- 
alised from  Arabia,  gained  the  upper  hand  and  dispos- 
sessed the  Greek,  is  probably  traceable  partly  to  Arabian 
influence,  partly  to  that  of  Christianity  and  the  revival 
connected  with  it  of  the  popular  dialects,  such  as  we  found 
also  in  Syria  and  Egypt  ;  and  it  does  not  exclude  the  view 
that  the  Greek  language  in  Axomis  and  Adulis  in  the  first 
and  second  centuries  of  our  era  had  a  similar  position  to 
what  it  had  in  Syria  and  Egypt,  so  far  as  it  is  allowable 
to  compare  small  and  great. 

Of  political  relations  of  the  Romans  to  the  state  of 

Axomis  hardly  anything  is  mentioned  from 
A^^mite^        the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era,  to  which 

our  narrative  is  confined.  With  the  rest  of 
Egypt  they  took  possession  also  of  the  ports  of  the  east 
coast  down  to  the  remote  Trogodytic  Berenice,  which  on 
account  of  that  remoteness  was  in  the  Roman  period 
placed  under  a  commandant  of  its  own.'  Of  extending 
their  territory  into  the  inhospitable  and  worthless  moun- 
tains along  the  coast  there  was  never  any  thought  ;  nor 
can  the  sparse  population,  standing  at  the  lowest  stage  of 
development,  in  the  immediately  adjoining  region  have 
ever  given  serious  trouble  to  the  Romans.  As  little  did 
the  Caesars  attempt,  as  the  early  Lagids  had  done,  to  pos- 
sess themselves  of  the  emporia  of  the  Axomitic  coast. 
There  is  express  mention  only  of  the  fact  that  envoys  of 
the  Axomite  kings  negotiated  with  the  emperor  Aurelian. 
But  this  very  silence,  as  well  as  the  formerly  indicated 
independent  position  of  the  ruler,  ^  leads  to  the  inference 

1  This  jiraefectm  praeddiorum  et  montis  Beronices  {0.  I.  L. 
ix.  3083),  praefectus  montis  Berenicidis  (Orelli,  3881),  praefectus 
Bernicidis  {G.  1.  L.  x.  1129),  an  officer  of  equestrian  rank,  anal- 
ogous to  those  adduced  above  (p.  270),  as  stationed  in  Alexandria. 

^  The  letter,  which  the  emperor  Constantius  in  the  year  356  di- 
rects to  Aeizanas,  the  king  of  the  Axomites  at  that  time,  is  that  of 


V 


Chap.  XII.]  Egyjpt.  309 

that  here  the  recognised  frontier  was  permanently  re- 
spected on  both  sides,  and  that  a  relation  of  good  neigh- 
bourhood subsisted,  which  proved  advantageous  to  the 
interests  of  peace  and  especially  of  Egyptian  commerce. 
That  the  latter,  especially  the  important  traffic  in  ivory,  in 
which  Adulis  was  the  chief  entrepot  for  the  interior  of 
Africa,  was  carried  on  predominantly  from  Egypt  and  in 
Egyptian  vessels,  cannot — considering  the  superior  civil- 
isation of  Egypt — be  subject  to  any  doubt  even  as  regards 
the  Lagid  period  ;  and  in  Roman  times  this  traffic  prob- 
ably only  increased  in  amount,  without  undergoing  fur- 
ther change. 

Far  more  imporant  for  Egypt  and  the  Eoman  empire 
generally  than  the  traffic  with  the  African 
S'lrTbfa?"^''  south  was  that  which  subsisted  with  Arabia 
and  the  coasts  situated  farther  to  the  east. 
The  Arabian  peninsula  remained  aloof  from  the  sphere  of 
Hellenic  culture.  It  would  possibly  have  been  otherwise 
had  king  Alexander  lived  a  year  longer  ;  death  swept  him 
away  amidst  the  preparations  for  sailing  round  and  occu- 
pying the  already-explored  south  coast  of  Arabia,  setting 
out  from  the  Persian  Gulf.  But  the  voyage  which  the 
great  king  had  not  been  able  to  enter  on  was  never  under- 
taken by  any  Greek  after  him.  From  the  most  remote 
times,  on  the  other  hand,  a  lively  intercourse  had  taken 
place  between  the  two  coasts  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  over  its 
moderately  broad  waters.  In  the  Egyptian  accounts  from 
the  time  of  the  Pharaohs  the  voyages  to  the  land  of  Punt, 
and  the  spoils  thence  brought  home  in  frankincense, 
ebony,  emeralds,  leopards'  skins,  play  an  important  part. 
It  has  been  already  (p.  162)  mentioned  that  subsequently 
the  northern  portion  of  the  Arabian  west  coast  belonged 

one  ruler  to  another  on  an  equal  footing ;  lie  requests  liis  friendly 
and  neighbourly  assistance  against  the  spread  of  the  Athanasian 
heresy,  and  for  the  deposition  and  delivering  up  of  an  Axomitic 
clergyman  suspected  of  it.  The  fellowship  of  culture  comes  here 
into  the  more  definite  prominence,  as  the  Christian  invokes  against 
the  Christian  the  arm  of  the  heathen. 


310 


Egyj^t, 


[Book  VIII. 


to  the  territory  of  the  Nabataeans,  and  with  this  came 
into  the  power  of  the  Komans.  This  was  a  desolate 
beach  ; '  only  the  emporium  Leuce  Come,  the  last  town  of 
the  Nabataeans  and  so  far  also  of  the  Koman  empire, 
was  not  merely  in  maritime  intercourse  with  Berenice 
lying  opposite,  but  was  also  the  starting-point  of  the  cara- 
van-route leading  to  Petra  and  thence  to  the  ports  of 
southern  Syria,  and  in  so  far,  one  of  the  centres  of  the 
traffic  between  the  East  and  the  West  (p.  165).  The  ad- 
joining regions  on  the  south,  northward  and  southward  of 
the  modern  Mecca,  corresponded  in  their  natural  charac- 
ter to  the  opposite  Trogodyte  country,  and  were,  like  this, 
neither  politically  nor  commercially  of  importance,  nor 
yet  apparently  united  under  one  sceptre,  but  occupied  by 
roving  tribes.    But  at  the  south  end  of  this  gulf  was  the 

^  Inland  lay  the  primeval  Teima,  the  son  of  Ishmael  of  Genesis, 
enumerated  by  the  Assyrian  king  Tiglath-Pilesar  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury before  Christ  among  his  conquests,  named  by  the  prophet  Jere- 
miah together  with  Sidon,  around  which  gather  in  a  remarkable 
way  Assyrian,  Egyptian,  Arabian  relations,  the  further  unfolding  of 
which,  after  bold  travellers  have  opened  up  the  place,  we  may 
await  from  Oriental  research.  In  Teima  itself  Euting  recently 
found  Aramaic  inscriptions  of  the  oldest  epoch  (Noldeke,  Sitzungs- 
hericMe  der  Berliner  Akademie^  1884,  p.  813  f.).  From  the  not  far 
distant  place  Medain-Salih  (Hijr)  proceed  certain  coins  modelled 
after  the  Attic,  which  in  part  replace  the  owl  of  Pallas  by  that  image 
of  a  god  which  the  Egyptians  designate  as  Besa  the  lord  of  Punt,  i.e. 
of  Arabia  (Erman,  Zeitschrift  filr  Numismatik^  ix.  296  f.).  We  have 
already  mentioned  the  Nabataean  inscriptions  just  found  there  (p. 
162,  note  3).  Not  far  from  thence,  near  'Ola  (el-Ally)  inscriptions 
have  been  found,  which  correspond  in  the  writing  and  in  the  names 
of  gods  and  kings  to  those  of  the  South-Arabian  Minaeans,  and  show 
that  these  had  a  considerable  station  here,  sixty  days'  journey  from 
their  home,  but  on  the  frankincense-route  mentioned  by  Eratos- 
tlienes,  from  Minaea  to  Aelana  ;  and  alongaide  of  these  others  of  a 
cognate  but  not  identical  south.  Arabian  stock  (D.  H.  Miiller  in 
the  BericMe  der  Wiener  Akademie  of  17th  December  1884).  The 
Minaean  inscriptions  belong  beyond  doubt  to  the  pre-Roman  period. 
As  on  the  annexation  of  the  Nabataean  kingdom  by  Trajan  these 
districts  were  abandoned  (p.  166),  from  that  time  another  south- 
Arabian  tribe  may  have  ruled  there. 


I 


Chap.  XIL]  £^gypt-  311 

home  of  the  only  Arabic  stock,  which  attained  to  greater 
importance  in  the  pre-Islamic  period.  The  Greeks  and 
the  Romans  name  these  Arabs  in  the  earlier  period  after 
the  people  most  prominent  at  that  time  Sabaeans,  in  later 
times  after  another  tribe  usually  Homerites,  as,  according 
to  the  new  Arabic  form  of  the  latter  name,  now  for  the 
most  part  Himjarites. 

The  development  of  this  remarkable  people  had  reached 

a  considerable  stage  long  before  the  begin- 
to^Homerites.   ^^^^g  Eomau  rule  ovcr  Egypt.'  Its 

native  seat,  the  Arabia  Felix  of  the  ancients, 
the  region  of  Mocha  and  Aden,  is  surrounded  by  a  narrow 
plain  along  the  shore  intensely  hot  and  desolate,  but  the 
healthy  and  temperate  interior  of  Yemen  and  Hadramaut 
produces  on  the  mountain-slopes  and  in  the  valleys  a 
luxuriant  vegetation,  and  the  numerous  mountain-waters 
permit  in  many  respects  with  careful  management  a 
garden-hke  cultivation.  We  have  even  at  the  present 
day  an  expressive  testimony  to  the  rich  and  peculiar  civil- 
isation of  this  region  in  the  remains  of  city-walls  and 
towers,  of  useful  buildings,  particularly  aqueducts,  and 
temples  covered  with  inscriptions,  which  completely  con- 
firm the  description  of  ancient  authors  as  to  the  magnifi- 
cence and  luxury  of  this  region ;  the  Arabian  geographers 
have  written  books  concerning  the  strongholds  and  castles 


'  The  accounts  connected  with  the  trade  in  frankincense  in 
Theophrastus  (f  287  B.C.;  Hist,  plant,  ix.  4)  and  more  fully  in 
Eratosthenes  (f  194  B.C.) ;  in  Strabo  (xvi.  4,  2,  p.  768)  of  the  four 
great  tribes  of  the  Minaeans  (Mamali  Theophr.  ?)  with  the  capital 
Carna ;  the  Sabaeans  (Saba  Theophr.)  with  the  capital  Mariaba; 
the  Cattabanes  (Kitibaena  Theophr.)  with  the  capita!  Tamna;  the 
Chatramotitae  (Hadramyta  Theophr.)  with  the  capital  Sabata,  de- 
scribe the  very  circle  out  of  which  the  Homerite  kingdom  developed 
itself,  and  indicate  its  beginnings.  The  much  sought  for  Minaei 
are  now  pointed  out  with  certainty  in  Ma'in  in  the  interior  above 
Marib  and  Hadramaut,  where  hundreds  of  inscriptions  have  been 
found,  and  have  yielded  already  no  fewer  than  twenty-six  kings' 
names.  Mariaba  is  even  now  named  Marib.  The  region  Chatra- 
motitis  or  Chatramitis  is  Hadramaut. 


312 


[Book  VIII. 


of  the  numerous  petty  princes  of  Yemen.  Famous  are  the 
ruins  of  the  mighty  embankment  which  once  in  the  valley 
of  Mariaba  dammed  up  the  river  Dana  and  rendered  it 
possible  to  water  the  fields  upwards/  and  from  the  burst- 
ing of  which,  and  the  migration  alleged  to  have  been 
thereby  occasioned  of  the  inhabitants  of  Yemen  to  the 
north  the  Arabs  for  long  counted  their  years.  But  above 
all  this  district  was  one  of  the  original  seats  of  wholesale 
traffic  by  land  and  by  sea,  not  merely  because  its  pro- 
ductions, frankincense,  precious  stones,  gum,  cassia,  aloes, 
senna,  myrrh,  and  numerous  other  drugs  called  for  export, 
but  also  because  this  Semitic  stock  was,  just  like  that  of  the 
Phoenicians,  formed  by  its  whole  character  for  commerce ; 
Strabo  says,  just  like  the  more  recent  travellers,  that  the 
Arabs  are  all  traders  and  merchants.  The  coining  of  silver 
is  here  old  and  peculiar  ;  the  coins  were  at  first  modelled 

^  The  remarkable  remains  of  this  structure,  executed  with  the 
greatest  precision  and  skill,  are  described  by  Arnaud  {Journal 
Asiatique^  7  serie,  tome  3,  for  the  year  1874,  p.  3  f.  with  plans  ; 
comp.  Ritter,  Brdkunde,  xii.  861).  On  the  two  sides  of  the  em- 
bankment, which  has  now  almost  wholly  disappeared,  stand  respec- 
tively two  stone  structures  built  of  square  blocks,  of  conical  almost 
cylindrical  form,  between  which  a  narrow  opening  is  found  for  the 
water  flowing  out  of  the  basin ;  at  least  on  the  one  side  a  canal 
lined  with  pebbles  leads  it  to  this  outlet.  It  was  once  closed  with 
planks  placed  one  above  another,  which  could  be  individually  re- 
moved, to  carry  the  water  away  as  might  be  needed.  The  one  of 
those  stone  cylinders  bears  the  following  inscription  (according  to  the 
translation,  not  indeed  quite  certain  in  all  its  details,  of  D.  H.  Muller, 
Wiener  Sitzungsberichte,  vol.  xcvii.  1880,  p.  965):  "  Jata'amar  the 
glorious,  son  of  Samah'ali  the  sublime,  prince  of  Saba,  caused  the 
Balap  (mountain)  to  be  pierced  (and  erected)  the  sluice-structure 
named  Rahab  for  easier  irrigation."  We  have  no  secure  basis  for 
fixing  the  chronological  place  of  this  and  numerous  other  royal 
names  of  the  Sabaean  inscriptions.  The  Assyrian  king  Sargon  says 
in  the  Khorsabad  inscription,  after  he  has  narrated  the  vanquishing 
of  the  king  of  Gaza,  Hanuo,  in  the  year  716  B.C.:  "I  received  the 
tribute  of  Pharaoh  the  king  of  Egypt,  of  Shamsiya  the  queen  of 
Arabia,  and  of  Ithamara  the  Sabaean  ;  gold,  herbs  of  the  eastern 
land,  slaves,  horses,  and  camels "  (Muller,  I.  c.  p.  988 ;  Duncker, 
Gesch.  des  Alterthums,  ii.^  p.  327). 


Chap.  XII.]  Egy:pL  313 

after  Athenian  dies,  and  later  after  Koman  coins  of  Au- 
gustus, but  on  an  independent,  probaby  Babylonian  basis/ 
From  the  land  of  these  Arabians  the  original  frankincense- 
routes  led  across  the  desert  to  the  marts  on  the  Arabian 
gulf,  Aelana  and  the  already-mentioned  Leuce  Come,  and 
the  emporia  of  Syria,  Petra  and  Gaza;^  these  routes  of 
the  land-traffic,  which  along  with  those  of  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Nile,  furnish  the  means  of  intercourse  between 
East  and  West  from  the  earliest  times,  may  be  conjectured 
to  be  the  proper  basis  of  the  prosperity  of  Yemen.  But 
the  sea-traffic  likewise  soon  became  associated  with  them ; 
the  great  mart  for  this  was  Adane,  the  modern  Aden. 
From  this  the  goods  went  by  water,  certainly  in  the  main  in 
Arabian  ships,  either  to  those  same  marts  on  the  Arabian 
gulf  and  so  to  the  Syrian  ports,  or  to  Berenice  and  Myos 
Hormos,  and  from  thence  to  Coptos  and  Alexandria.  We 
have  already  stated  that  the  same  Arabs  likewise  at  a  very 
early  time  possessed  themselves  of  the  opposite  coast,  and 
transplanted  their  language,  their  writing  and  their  civil- 
isation to  Habesh.  K  Coptos,  the  Nile-emporium  for  the 
eastern  traffic,  had  just  as  many  Arabs  as  Egypt  had  in- 
habitants, if  even  the  emerald-mines  above  Berenice  (near 
Jebel  Zebara)  were  worked  by  the  Arabs,  this  shows  that 
in  the  Lagid  state  itself  they  had  the  trade  up  to  a  certain 
degree  in  their  hands  ;  and  its  passive  attitude  in  respect 
to  the  traffic  on  the  Arabian  sea,  whither  at  most  an  expedi- 
tion against  the  pirates  was  once  undertaken,^  is  the  more 

'  Sallet  iu  the  Berliner  Zeitsclirift  fur  Numismatik^  viii.  243 ;  J. 
H.  Mordtmann  in  the  Wiener  Numism.  Zeitschrift,  xii.  289. 

Pliny,  H.  N.  xii.  14,  65,  reckons  the  cost  of  a  camel's  load  of 
frankincense  by  the  land-route  from  the  Arabian  coast  to  Gaza  at  688 
denarii  (=£30).  "Along  the  whole  tract  fodder  and  water  and  shelter 
and  various  custom-dues  have  to  be  paid  for  ;  then  the  priests  demand 
certain  shares  and  the  scribes  of  the  kings ;  moreover  the  guards 
and  the  halberdiers  and  the  body-guards  and  servants  have  their  ex- 
actions ;  to  which  our  imperial  dues  fall  to  be  added."  In  the  case  of 
the  water-transport  these  intervening  expenses  were  not  incurred. 

^  The  chastising  of  the  pirates  is  reported  by  Agatharchides  in 
Diodorus,  iii.  43,  and  Strabo,  xvi,  4,  18,  p.  777.  But  Ezion-Geber 
in  Palestine,  on  the  Elanitic  gulf,  ^  vvv  BepevUti  Ka\uTai  (Josephus, 


314 


EgyjpL 


[Book  VIII. 


readily  intelligible,  if  a  state  well  organised  and  powerful 
at  sea  ruled  these  waters.  We  meet  the  Arabs  of  Yemen 
even  beyond  their  own  sea.  Adane  remained  down  to  the 
Roman  imperial  times  a  mart  of  traffic  on  the  one  hand 
with  India,  on  the  other  with  Egypt,  and,  in  spite  of  its 
own  unfavourable  position  on  the  treeless  shore,  rose  to 
such  prosperity  that  the  name  of  "Arabia  Felix"  had 
primary  reference  to  this  town.  The  dominion,  which  in 
our  days  the  Imam  of  Muscat  in  the  south-east  of  the 
peninsula  has  exercised  over  the  islands  of  Socotra  and 
Zanzibar  and  the  African  east  coast  from  Cape  Guardafui 
southward,  pertained  in  Vespasian's  time  "  from  of  old  " 
to  the  princes  of  Arabia ;  the  island  of  Dioscorides,  that 
same  Socotra,  belonged  then  to  the  king  of  Hadramaut, 
Azania,  that  is,  the  coast  of  Somal  and  further  southward, 
to  one  of  the  viceroys  of  his  western  neighbour,  the  king 
of  the  Homerites.  The  southernmost  station  on  the  east 
African  coast  which  the  Egyptian  merchants  knew  of, 
Rhapta  in  the  region  of  Zanzibar,  was  leased  from  this 
sheikh  by  the  merchants  of  Muza,  that  is  nearly  the 
modern  Mocha,  "and  they  send  thither  their  trading- 
ships,  mostly  manned  by  Arabian  captains  and  sailors, 
who  are  accustomed  to  deal  and  are  often  connected  by 
marriage  with  the  natives,  and  are  acquainted  with  the 
localities  and  the  languages  of  the  country."  The  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil  and  industry  went  hand  in  hand  with  com- 
merce ;  in  the  houses  of  rank  in  India,  Arabian  wine 
was  drunk  alongside  of  the  Falernian  from  Italy  and  the 
Laodicene  from  Syria ;  and  the  lances  and  shoemakers' 
awls,  which  the  natives  of  the  coast  of  Malabar  purchased 
from  the  foreign  traders  were  manufactured  at  Muza. 
Thus  this  region,  which  morever  sold  much  and  bought 
little,  became  one  of  the  richest  in  the  world. 

How  far  its  political  development  kept  pace  with  the 
economic,  cannot  be  determined  for  the  pre-Roman  and 
earlier  imperial  period ;  only  this  much  seems  to  result 

Arch.,  viii.  6,  4),  was  so  called  certainly  not  from  an  Egyptian  prin- 
cess (Drojsen,  Hellenismus^  iii.  2,  349),  but  from  tlie  Jewess  of  Titus. 


Chap.  XII.]  Egypt  315 

both  from  the  accounts  of  the  Occidentals  and  from  the 
native  inscriptions,  that  this  south-west  point  of  Arabia 
was  divided  among  several  independent  rulers  with  terri- 
tories of  moderate  size.  There  subsisted  in  that  quarter, 
alongside  of  the  more  prominent  Sabaeans  and  Homerites, 
the  already-mentioned  Chatramotitae  in  the  Hadramaut, 
and  northward  in  the  interior  the  Minaeans,  all  under 
princes  of  their  own. 

With  reference  to  the  Arabians  of  Yemen  the  Komans 
pursued  the  very  opposite  policy  to  that  adopted  towards 
the  Axomites.  Augustus,  for  whom  the  non-enlargement 
of  the  bounds  was  the  starting-point  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment, and  who  allowed  almost  all  the  plans  of  conquest  of 
his  father  and  master  to  drop,  made  an  exception  of  the 
south-west  coast  of  Arabia,  and  here  took  aggressive  meas- 
ures of  his  own  free  will.  This  was  done  on  account  of 
the  position  which  this  group  of  peoples  occupied  at  that 
time  in  Indo-Egyptian  commercial  intercourse.  In  order 
to  bring  the  province  of  his  dominions,  which  was  politi- 
cally and  financially  the  most  important,  up,  in  an  economic 
aspect,  to  the  level  which  his  predecessors  in  rule  had 
neglected  to  establish  or  had  allowed  to  decline,  he  needed 
above  all  to  obtain  inter-communication  between  Arabia 
and  India  on  the  one  hand  and  Europe  on  the  other.  The 
Nile-route  for  long  competed  successfully  with  the  Arabian 
and  the  Euphrates  routes  ;  but  Egypt  played  in  this  re- 
spect, as  we  saw,  a  subordinate  part  at  least  under  the 
later  Lagids.  A  trading  rivalry  subsisted  not  with  the 
Axomites,  but  doubtless  with  the  Arabians  ;  if  the  Egyptian 
traffic  was  to  be  converted  from  a  passive  into  an  active, 
from  indirect  into  direct,  the  Arabs  had  to  be  overthrown  ; 
and  this  it  was  that  Augustus  desired  and  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment in  some  measure  achieved. 

In  the  sixth  year  of  his  reign  in  Egypt  (end  of  729) 
Augustus  despatched  a  fleet,  fitted  out  express- 
Expedition  of  ly  for  this  expedition,  of  80  warships  and  130 
Gaiius.  transports,  and  the  half  of  the  Egyptian  army, 

a  corps  of  10,000  men,  without  reckoning  the  contingents 


316 


Egypt, 


[Book  VIII. 


of  the  two  nearest  client  kings,  the  Nabataean  Obodas  and 
the  Jew  Herod,  against  the  states  of  Yemen,  in  order  either 
to  subjugate  or  at  least  to  ruin  them,^  while  at  the  same 
time  the  treasures  there  accumulated  were  certainly  taken 
into  account.  But  the  enterprise  completely  miscarried, 
and  that  from  the  incapacity  of  the  leader,  the  governor  of 
Egypt  at  the  time,  Gains  Aelius  Gallus.^    Since  the  occu- 

'  This  {Trpo(roLKeiov(r6ai  tovtovs  —  rovs  "Apafias  —  ^  Karaa'rpe<p€(T6at : 
Strabo,  xvi.  4,  22  p.  780  ;  ei  /j.^  6  SuWaTos  avrhv — rhu  TdWov — irpov^l- 
Sov,  Kti,u  KUTCcTTpiipaTo  T^v  Evdulfiova  iracrav  :  lb.  xvii.  1,  53,  p.  819)  was 
the  proper  aim  of  the  expedition,  although  also  the  hope  of  spoil, 
just  at  that  time  very  welcome  for  the  treasury,  is  expressly  men- 
tioned. 

2  The  account  of  Strabo  (xvi.  4,  22  f , ,  p.  780)  as  to  the  Arabian 
expedition  of  his  "friend  "  Gallus  {(plKos  r]n7v  koI  kraipos,  Strabo,  ii, 
5,  12,  p.  118),  in  whose  train  he  travelled  in  Egypt,  is  indeed  trust- 
worthy and  honest,  like  all  his  accounts,  but  evidently  accepted 
from  this  friend  without  any  criticism.  The  battle  in  which  10,000 
of  the  enemy  and  two  Romans  fell,  and  the  total  number  of  the  fal- 
len in  this  campaign,  which  is  seven,  are  self-condemned ;  but  not 
better  is  the  attempt  to  devolve  the  want  of  success  on  the  Naba- 
taean vizier  Syllaeos  by  means  of  a  "  treachery,"  such  as  is  familiar 
with  defeated  generals.  Certainly  the  latter  was  so  far  fitted  for  a 
scapegoat,  as  he  some  years  afterwards  was  on  the  instigation  of 
Herod  brought  to  trial  before  Augustus,  condemned  and  executed 
(Josephus,  Arch.  xvi.  10)  ;  but  although  we  possess  the  report  of 
the  agent  who  managed  this  matter  for  Herod  in  Rome,  there  is 
not  a  word  to  be  found  in  it  of  this  betrayal.  That  Syllaeos  should 
have  had  the  design  of  first  destroying  the  Arabians  by  means  of 
the  Romans,  and  then  of  destroying  the  latter  themselves,  as  Strabo 
"thinks,"  is,  looking  to  the  position  of  the  client-states  of  Rome, 
quite  irrational.  It  might  rather  be  thought  that  Syllaeos  was 
averse  to  the  expedition,  because  the  commercial  traffic  through  the 
Nabataean  land  might  be  injured  by  it.  But  to  accuse  the  Arabian 
minister  of  treachery  because  the  Roman  transports  were  not  fitted 
for  navigating  the  Arabian  coast,  or  because  the  Roman  army  was 
compelled  to  carry  water  with  it  on  camels,  to  eat  durra  and  dates 
instead  of  bread  and  flesh,  and  butter  instead  of  oil ;  to  bring  for- 
ward the  deceitfulness  of  the  guidance  as  an  excuse  for  the  fact  that 
180  days  were  employed  for  the  forward  march  over  a  distance  over- 
taken on  the  return  march  in  60  days  ;  and  lastly,  to  criticise  the 
quite  correct  remark  of  Syllaeos  that  a  march  by  land  from  Arsinoe 
to  Leuce  Come  was  impracticable,  by  saying  that  a  caravan  route 


Chap.  XII.]  Egyp.  317 

pation  and  the  possession  of  the  desolate  coast  from  Leuce 
Come  downwards  to  the  frontier  of  the  enemy's  territory 
was  of  no  consequence  at  all,  it  was  necessary  that  the  ex- 
pedition should  be  directed  immediately  against  the  latter, 
and  that  the  army  should  be  conducted  fi'om  the  most 
southern  Egyptian  port  at  once  into  Arabia  Felix/  In- 
stead of  this  the  fleet  was  got  ready  at  the  most  northerly, 
that  of  Arsinoe  (Suez),  and  the  army  was  landed  at  Leuce 
Come,  just  as  if  it  were  the  object  to  prolong  as  much  as 
possible  the  voyage  of  the  fleet  and  the  march  of  the 
troops.  Besides,  the  war-vessels  were  superfluous,  since 
the  Arabians  possessed  no  war-fleet,  the  Eoman  sailors 
were  unacquainted  with  the  navigation  on  the  Ai'abian 
coast,  and  the  transports,  although  specially  built  for  this 

went  thence  to  Petra,  only  shows  what  a  Roman  of  rank  was  able  to 
make  a  Greek  man  of  letters  believe. 

^  The  sharpest  criticism  of  the  campaign  is  furnished  br  the  de- 
tailed account  of  the  Egyptian  merchant  as  to  the  state  of  the  Ara- 
bian coast  from  Leuce  Come  (el-Haura  to  the  north  of  Janbo.  the  port 
of  Medina)  to  the  Catacecaumene  island  (Jebel  Talk  near  Lohaia). 
"  Different  peoples  inhabit  it,  who  speak  languages  partly  somewhat 
different,  partly  wholly  so.  The  inhabitants  of  the  coast  live  in 
hurdles  like  the  '  fish-eaters '  on  the  opposite  coast  "  (these  hurdles 
he  describes,  c.  2,  as  isolated  and  built  into  the  clefts  of  the  rocks), 
* '  those  of  the  interior  in  villages  and  pastoral  cempanies  ;  they  are 
ill-disposed  men  speaking  two  languages,  who  plunder  the  seafarers 
that  drift  out  of  their  course  and  drug  the  shipwrecked  into  slavery. 
For  that  reason  they  are  constantly  hunted  by  the  viceroys  and 
chief  kings  of  Arabia  ;  they  are  called  Kanraites  (or  Kassanites).  In 
general  navigation  on  all  this  coast  is  dangerous,  the  shore  is  with- 
out harbours  and  inaccessible,  with  a  troublesome  surf,  rocky  and 
in  general  very  bad.  Therefore,  when  we  sail  into  these  waters, 
we  keep  to  the  middle  and  hasten  to  get  to  the  Arabian  territory  at 
the  island  Catacecaumene  ;  from  thence  onward  the  inhabitants  are 
hospitable,  and  we  meet  with  numerous  flocks  of  sheep  and  camels." 
The  same  region  between  the  Roman  and  the  Homeritic  frontiers, 
and  the  same  state  of  things  are  in  the  view  of  the  Axomite  king, 
when  he  writes:  ir^pau  Se  rrjs  ipvOpas  daXdacrvs  olKovt^ras'Appa^LTas  Kal 
KLvaLSoKoXiriras  (comp.  Ptolemaeus  vi.  7,  20),  crTpaTeviia  vavriKhv  KoL 
Tve^iKhv  5iaTreiJ.\pd/j.suos  Kal  vTrord^as  avrcav  rous  ^aaLAeas,  (popovs  tt]s  yrj^ 
reXeiy  e/teAeutro  Kal  oSeveaOai  /xer'  elpxvvs  koI  TrAeeo'^oi,  airS  re  AevKTjs 


318 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


expedition,  were  unsuited  for  their  purpose.  The  pilots 
had  difficulty  in  finding  their  way  between  the  shallows 
and  the  rocks,  and  even  the  voyage  in  Roman  waters  from 
Arsinoe  to  Leuce  Come  cost  many  vessels  and  men.  Here 
the  winter  was  passed  ;  in  the  spring  of  730  the  campaign 
in  the  enemy's  country  began.  The  Arabians  offered  no 
hindrance,  but  Arabia  undoubtedly  did  so.  Wherever  the 
double  axes  and  the  slings  and  bows  came  into  collision 
with  the  pilum  and  the  sword,  the  natives  dispersed  like 
chaff  before  the  wind  ;  but  the  diseases,  which  are  endemic 
in  the  country,  scurvy,  leprosy,  palsy,  decimated  the  sol- 
diers worse  than  the  most  bloody  battle,  and  all  the  more 
as  the  general  did  not  know  how  to  move  rapidly  forward 
the  unwieldy  mass  of  his  army.  Nevertheless  the  Roman 
army  arrived  in  front  of  the  walls  of  Mariaba,  the  capital  of 
the  Sabaeans  first  affected  by  the  attack.  But,  as  the  in- 
habitants closed  the  gates  of  their  powerful  walls  still  stand- 
ing,' and  offered  energetic  resistance,  the  Roman  general 
despaired  of  solving  the  problem  proposed  to  him ;  and,  after 
he  had  lain  six  days  in  front  of  the  town,  he  entered  on  his 
retreat,  which  the  Arabians  hardly  disturbed  in  earnest,  and 
which  was  accomplished  with  comparative  rapidity  under 
the  pressure  of  need,  although  with  a  severe  loss  in  men. 
It  was  a  bad  miscarriage  ;  but  Augustus  did  not  aban- 
don the  conquest  of  Arabia.  It  has  already 
Further  enter-   ^^^^^  related  (d.  41)  that  the  I'ourney  to  the 

prises  agamsc  \i         /  j  »/ 

the  Arabs.  East,  which  the  crown-prince  Gains  entered 
1,  upon  in  the  year  753,  was  to  terminate  at  Ara- 

bia ;  it  was  this  time  contemplated  after  the 
subjugation  of  Armenia  to  reach,  in  concert  with  the  Par- 
thian government  or  in  case  of  need  after  the  overthrow  of 
their  armies,  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  and  from  thence 
to  take  the  sea-route  which  the  admiral  Nearchus  had 
once  explored  for  Alexander,  towards  Arabia  Felix.  ^  These 

1  These  walls,  built  of  rubble,  form  a  circle  of  a  mile  in  diameter. 
They  are  described  by  Arnaud  (Z.c,  comp.  p.  321,  note  1). 

^  That  the  Oriental  expedition  of  Gains  had  Arabia  as  its  goal,  is 
stated  expressly  by  Tliny  (particularly  //.      xii.  14,  55,  56  ;  comp. 


CHAr.  XII.]  Eg7j:pt.  319 

hopes  ended  in  another  but  not  less  unfortunate  way, 
through  the  Parthian  arrow  which  struck  the  crown-prince 
before  the  walls  of  Artageira.  With  him  was  buried  the 
plan  of  Arabian  conquest  for  all  the  future.  The  great 
peninsula  remained  through  the  whole  imperial  period — 
apart  from  the  stripes  of  coast  on  the  north  and  north- 
west— in  possession  of  that  freedom  from  which  Islam, 
the  executioner  of  Hellenism,  was  in  its  own  time  to 
issue. 

But  the  Arabian  commerce  was  at  all  events  broken 
dow^n  partly  by  the  measures,  to  be  explained 
win^oSmerce.  farther  OD,  of  the  Eoman  government  for  pro- 
tecting the  Egyptian  navigation,  partly  by  a 
blow  struck  by  the  Eomans  against  the  chief  mart  of 
Indo-Arabian  traffic.  Whether  under  Augustus  himself, 
possibly  among  the  preparations  for  the  invasion  to  be 
carried  out  by  Gains,  or  under  one  of  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors, a  Eoman  fleet  appeared  before  Adane  and  de- 
stroyed the  place  ;  in  Vespasian's  time  it  was  a  village, 
and  its  prosperity  was  gone.  We  know  only  the  naked 
fact,'  but  it  speaks  for  itself.    A  counterpart  to  the  de- 


ii.  67,  168  ;  vi.  27,  141,  c.  28,  160  ;  xxxii.  1,  10).  That  it  was  to 
set  out  from  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  follows  from  the  fact  that 
the  expedition  to  Armenia  and  the  negotiations  with  the  Parthians 
preceded  it.  For  that  reason  the  Collectanea  of  Juba  as  to  the  im- 
pending expedition  were  based  upon  the  reports  of  the  generals  of 
Alexander  as  to  their  exploring  of  Arabia. 

^  Our  only  information  as  to  this  remarkable  expedition  has  been 
preserved  to  us  by  the  Egyptian  captain,  who  about  the  year  75  has 
described  his  voyage  on  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea.  He  knows  (c. 
26)  the  Adane  of  later  writers,  the  modern  Aden,  as  a  village  on  the 
coast  («:co;U77  7rapa0aAo(T(rio9),  which  belongs  to  the  realm  of  Charibael, 
king  of  the  Homerites,  but  was  earlier  a  flourishing  town,  and  was 
so  termed  (eu5aiV<wf  8'  iireK\^d7]  irpSrepov  ovcra  ttoXis)  because  before 
the  institution  of  the  direct  Indo  Egyptian  traffic  this  place  served 
as  a  mart  :  vvv  5e  ov  irph  ttoXXqv  twv  rifieTepwu  %poVctfj/  Ka7<rap  avr^v 
KaTe(rrpe\f/aTo.  The  last  word  can  here  only  mean  "  destroy,"  not,  as 
more  frequently,  "  subdue,"  because  the  conversion  of  the  town  into 
a  village  is  to  be  accounted  for.  For  KaTo-ap  Schwanbeck  {Rhein.  Mus. 
MU6  Folge,  vii.  353)  has  proposed  XoptjSa^A,  C.  Miiller  'lAao-op  (on 


320 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII 


struction  of  Corinth  and  of  Carthage  by  the  republic,  it, 
hke  these,  attained  its  end,  and  secured  for  the  Romano- 
Egyptian  trade  the  supremacy  in  the  Arabian  gulf  and  in 
the  Indian  Sea. 

The  prosperity,  however,  of  the  blessed  land  of  Yemen 
was  too  firmly  founded  to  succumb  to  this 

Later  fortunes  Tj-n-j  i 

of  the  Homer-    blow  ;  politically  it  was  even  perhaps  m  this 
epoch  only  that  it  more  energetically  rallied 
its  resources.    Mariaba,  at  the  time  when  the  arms  of 

account  of  Strabo,  xvi.  4,  21,  p.  782)  :  neither  is  possible — not  the 
latter,  because  this  Arabian  dynast  ruled  in  a  far  remote  district  and 
could  not  possibly  be  presumed  as  well  known  ;  not  the  former,  be- 
cause Charibael  was  a  centemporary  of  the  writer,  and  there  is  here 
reported  an  incident  which  occurred  before  his  time.  We  shall  not 
take  offence  at  the  tradition,  if  we  reflect  what  interest  the  Romans 
must  have  had  in  setting  aside  the  Arabian  mart  between  India  and 
Egypt,  and  in  bringing  about  direct  intercourse.  That  the  Roman 
accounts  are  silent  as  to  this  occurrence  is  in  keeping  with  their 
habit ;  the  expedition,  which  beyond  doubt  was  executed  by  an 
Egyptian  fleet  and  simply  consisted  in  the  destruction  of  a  presum- 
ably defenceless  place  on  the  coast,  would  not  be  from  a  military 
point  of  view  of  any  importance  ;  about  great  commercial  dealings 
the  annalists  gave  themselves  no  concern,  and  generally  the  inci- 
dents in  Egypt  came  still  less  than  those  in  the  other  imperial  prov- 
inces to  the  knowledge  of  the  senate  and  therewith  of  the  annalists. 
The  naked  designation  Kalo-ap,  in  which  from  the  nature  of  the 
case  the  ruler  then  reigning  is  excluded,  is  probably  to  be  explained 
from  the  circumstance  that  the  reporting  captain,  while  knowing 
doubtless  the  fact  of  the  destruction  by  the  Romans,  knew  not  its 
date  or  author. — It  is  possible  that  to  this  the  notice  in  Pliny  {H.  N. 
ii.  67,  168)  is  to  be  referred :  maiorem  (oceani)  partem  et  orientis 
mctoriae  magni  Alexandri  lustravere  usque  in  Arabicum  sinum^  in 
quo  res  gerente  G.  Gaesare  Aug.  f.  signa  navium  ex  Hispaniensihus 
naufragiis  feruntur  agnita.  Gains  did  not  reach  Arabia  (Plin.  H.  N. 
vi.  28,  160) ;  but  during  the  Armenian  expedition  a  Roman  squad- 
ron may  very  well  have  been  conducted  by  one  of  his  sub  com- 
manders to  this  coast,  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  the  main  expe- 
dition. That  silence  reigns  elsewhere  respecting  it  cannot  surprise 
us.  The  Arabian  expedition  of  Gains  had  been  so  solemnly  an- 
nounced and  then  abandoned  in  so  wretched  a  way,  that  loyal  re- 
porters had  every  reason  to  obliterate  a  fact  which  could  not  well 
be  mentioned  without  also  reporting  the  failure  of  the  greater 
plan. 


Chap.  XII.]  Egy;pt.  321 

Gallus  failed  before  its  walls,  was  perhaps  no  more  than 
the  capital  of  the  Sabaeans  ;  but  already  at  that  time  the 
tribe  of  the  Homerites,  whose  capital  Sapphar  lay  some- 
what to  the  south  of  Mariaba,  also  in  the  interior,  was 
the  strongest  in  Arabia  Felix.  A  century  later  we  find  the 
two  united  under  a  king  of  the  Homerites  and  of  the  Sa- 
baeans reigning  in  Sapphar,  whose  rule  extends  as  far 
as  Mocha  and  Aden,  and,  as  was  already  said,  over  the 
island  of  Socotra  and  the  coast  of  Somal  and  Zanzibar  ; 
and  at  least  from  this  time  we  may  speak  of  a  kingdom  of 
the  Homerites.  The  desert  northwards  from  Mariaba  as 
far  as  the  Roman  frontier  did  not  at  that  time  belong  to 
it,  and  was  under  no  regular  authority  at  all ;  *  the  princi- 
palities of  the  Minaei  and  of  the  Chatramotitae  continued 
also  to  be  under  sovereigns  of  their  own.  The  eastern 
half  of  Arabia  formed  constantly  a  part  of  the  Persian  em- 
pire (p,  13),  and  never  was  under  the  sceptre  of  the  rulers 
of  Arabia  Felix.  Even  now  therefore  the  bounds  were 
narrow  and  probably  remained  so  ;  little  is  known  as  to 
the  further  development  of  affairs. In  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  the  kingdom  of  the  Homerites  was  united 
with  that  of  the  Axomites,  and  was  governed  from  Axo- 
mis  ^ — a  subjection,  however,  which   was  subsequently 

^  The  Egyptian  merchant  distinguishes  the  eudea/nos  /9atrtA6i's  of 
the  Homerites  (c.  23)  sharply  from  the  rvpavvoi,  the  tribal  chiefs 
sometimes  subordinate  to  him,  sometimes  independent  (c.  14),  and 
as  sharply  distinguishes  these  organised  conditions  from  the  lawless- 
ness of  the  inhabitants  of  the  desert  (c.  2).  If  Strabo  and  Tacitus 
had  had  eyes  as  open  for  these  things  as  that  practical  man  had,  we 
should  have  known  somewhat  more  of  antiquity. 

-'  The  war  of  Macrinus  against  the  Arabes  eudaemones  {tita,  12) 
and  their  envoys  sent  to  Aurelian  {lita,  33),  who  are  named  along 
with  those  of  the  Axomites,  would  prove  their  continued  inde- 
pendence at  that  time,  if  these  statements  could  be  depended  on. 

^  The  king  names  himself,  about  the  year  356  (p.  308,  note  2),  in 
a  document  (C.  /.  Or.  5128)  fiaaiXevs  'A^co/xirciop  koI  'Oix-qpiruiv  koX  tov 
'Paeidaf  (castle  in  Sapphar,  the  capital  of  the  Homerites  ;  Dillmann, 
Abh.  der  Berl.  Akad.  1878,  p.  207)  .  .  .  koI  SajSaeiroiv  koX  tov 
2tAe7]  (castle  in  Mariaba,  the  capital  of  the  Sabaeans ;  Dillmann,  I.e.). 
With  this  agrees  the  contemporary  mission  of  envoys  ad  gentem 
Vol.  II.— 31 


322 


Egyjpt 


[Book  VIII. 


broken  off  again.  The  kingdom  of  the  Homerites,  as  well 
as  the  united  Axomitico-Homeritic,  stood  as  independent 
states  in  intercourse  and  treaty  with  Eome  during  the 
later  imperial  period. 

In  commerce  and  navigation  the  Arabians  of  the  south- 
west of  the  peninsula  occupied,  if  no  longer 

Commercial        ii         i  p  i  ■  . 

intercourse  of  tuc  piacc  oi  suprcmacj,  at  any  rate  a  promi- 
the  Homerites.  ^^^^  position  throughout  the  whole  imperial 
period.  After  the  destruction  of  Adane,  Muza  became  the 
commercial  metropolis  of  this  region.  The  representa- 
tion formerly  given  is  still  in  the  main  appropriate  for  the 
time  of  Vespasian.  The  place  is  described  to  us  at  this 
time  as  exclusively  Arabian,  inhabited  by  shipowners  and 
sailors,  and  full  of  stirring  mercantile  life  ;  the  Muzaites 
with  their  own  ships  navigate  the  whole  east  coast  of 
Africa  and  the  west  coast  of  India,  and  not  merely  carry 
the  goods  of  their  own  country,  but  bring  also  the  purple 
stuffs  and  gold  embroideries  prepared  according  to  Orien- 
tal taste  in  the  workshops  of  the  West,  and  the  fine  wines 
of  Syria  and  Italy,  to  the  Orientals,  and  in  turn  to  the 
western  lands  the  precious  wares  of  the  East.  In  f  rankin- 
ccDse  and  other  aromatics  Muza  and  the  emporium  of  the 
neighbouring  kingdom  of  Hadramaut,  Cane  to  the  east  of 
Aden,  must  always  have  retained  a  sort  of  practical  mo- 
nopoly ;  these  wares,  used  in  antiquity  very  much  more 
than  at  present,  were  produced  not  only  on  the  southern 
coast  of  Arabia,  but  also  on  the  African  coast  from  Adulis 
as  far  as  the  "promontory  of  spices,"  Cape  Guardafui,  and 
from  thence  the  merchants  of  Muza  fetched  them  and 
brought  them  into  general  commerce.  On  the  already 
mentioned  island  of  Dioscorides  there  was  a  joint  trading 
settlement  of  the  three  great  seafaring  nations  of  these 
seas,  the  Hellenes,  that  is,  the  Egyptians,  the  Arabians, 
and  the  Indians.  But  of  relations  to  Hellenism,  such  as 
we  found  on  the  opposite  coast  among  the  Axomites  (p. 

Axumitarum  et  Ilomerita  {ruin]  {C.  Tli.  xii.  12,  2).  As  to  the  later 
state  of  tilings  comp.  especially  Nonnosus  (/r.  hist.  Gr.  iv.  p.  179, 
Miill.)  and  Procopius,  Ilist.  Pers.  i.  20 


Chap.  XII.]  Egyp.  323 

308),  we  meet  no  trace  in  the  land  of  Yemen  ;  if  the  coin- 
age is  determined  by  Occidental  types  (p.  813  f.),  these 
were  current  throughout  the  East.  Otherwise  writing 
and  language  and  the  exercise  of  art,  so  far  as  we  are  able 
to  judge,  developed  themselves  here  just  as  independently 
as  commerce  and  navigation  ;  and  certainly  this  co-oper- 
ated in  producing  the  result  that  the  Axomites,  while  they 
subjected  to  themselves  the  Homerites  in  a  political  point 
of  view,  subsequently  reverted  from  the  Hellenic  path  into 
the  Arabic  (p.  308). 

In  the  same  spirit  as  for  the  relations  to  southern  Africa 
and  to  the  Arabian  states,  and  in  a  more 

Land-routes  ,       .  .  .  t     •     -n  j 

and  harbours  plcasiug  Way,  provision  was  made  m  -cjgypt  it- 
m  Egypt.  routes  of  commercial  intercourse, 

in  the  first  instance  by  Augustus,  and  beyond  doubt  by 
all  its  intelligent  rulers.  The  system  of  roads  and  har- 
bours established  by  the  earlier  Ptolemies  in  the  footsteps 
of  the  Pharaohs  had,  like  the  whole  administration,  fallen 
into  sad  decay  amidst  the  troubles  of  the  last  Lagid  pe- 
riod. It  is  not  expressly  mentioned  that  Augustus  put 
again  into  order  the  land  and  water  routes  and  the  ports  of 
Egypt ;  but  that  it  was  done,  is  none  the  less  certain. 
Coptos  remained  through  the  whole  imperial  period  the 
rendezvous  of  this  traffic.^  From  a  recently  found  docu- 
ment we  gather  that  in  the  first  imperial  period  the  two 
routes  leading  thence  to  the  ports  of  Myos  Hermos  and  of 
Berenice  were  repaired  by  the  Roman  soldiers  and  pro- 
vided at  the  fitting  places  with  the  requisite  cisterns.^ 

'  Aristides  {Or.  xlviii.  p.  485,  Dind.)  names  Coptos  the  Indian 
and  Arabian  entrepot.  In  the  romance  of  Xenophon  the  Ephesian 
(iv.  1),  the  Syrian  robbers  resort  to  Coptos,  "  for  there  a  number  of 
merchants  pass  through,  who  are  travelling  to  Aethiopia  and  India." 

^  Hadrian  later  constructed  "  the  new  Hadrian's  road"  which  led 
from  his  town  Antinoopolis  near  Hermopolis,  probably  through  the 
desert  to  Myos  Hermos,  and  from  Myos  Hermos  along  the  sea  to 
Berenice,  and  provided  it  with  cisterns,  stations  (TTa0/uot),  and  forts 
(inscription  in  Revue  Arclieol.  N.  S.  xxi.  year  1870,  p.  314).  How- 
ever there  is  no  mention  of  this  road  subsequently,  and  it  is  a  ques- 
tion whether  it  continued  to  subsist. 


324 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


The  canal  whicli  connected  the  Ked  Sea  with  the  Nile,  and 
so  with  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  was  in  the  Roman  period 
only  of  secondary  rank,  employed  chiefly  perhaps  for  the 
conveyance  of  blocks  of  marble  and  porphyry  from  the 
Egyptian  east  coast  to  the  Mediterranean  ;  but  it  remained 
navigable  throughout  the  imperial  period.  The  emperor 
Trajan  renewed  and  probably  also  enlarged  it — perhaps 
it  was  he  who  placed  it  in  communication  with  the  still 
undivided  Nile  near  Babylon  (not  far  from  Cairo),  and 
thereby  increased  its  water-supply — and  assigned  to  it  the 
name  of  Trajan's  or  the  emperor's  river  [Augustus  amnis), 
from  which  in  later  times  this  part  of  Egypt  was  named 
(Augustamnica) . 

Augustus  exerted  himself  also  in  earnest  for  the  sup- 
pression of  piracy  on  the  Red  and  Indian  Seas  ; 
Piracy.  Egyptians  long   even   after  his  death 

thanked  him,  that  through  his  efforts  piratical  sails  disap- 
peared from  the  sea  and  gave  way  to  trading  vessels.  No 
doubt  what  was  done  in  that  respect  was  far  from  enough. 
The  facts  that,  while  the  government  doubtless  from  time 
to  time  set  naval  squadrons  to  work  in  these  waters,  it 
did  not  station  there  a  standing  war-fleet ;  and  that  the 
Roman  merchantmen  regularly  took  archers  on  board  in 
the  Indian  Sea  to  repel  the  attacks  of  the  pirates,  would 
be  surprising,  if  a  comparative  indifference  to  the  insecur- 
ity of  the  sea  had  not  everywhere — here,  as  well  as  on  the 
Belgian  coast,  and  on  those  of  the  Black  Sea — clung  like  a 
hereditary  siii  to  the  Roman  imperial  government  or  rather 
to  the  Roman  government  in  general.  It  is  true  that  the 
governments  of  Axomis  and  of  Sapphar  were  called  by 
their  geograghical  position  still  more  than  the  Romans  at 
Berenice  and  Leuce  Come  to  check  piracy,  and  it  may  be 
partly  due  to  this  consideration  that  the  Romans  remained, 
upon  the  whole,  on  a  good  understanding  with  these 
weaker  but  indispensable  neighbours. 

We  have  formerly  shown  that  the  maritime  intercourse 
of  Egypt,  if  not  with  Adulis  (p.  309),  at  any  rate  with 
Arabia  and  India  at  the  epoch  which  immediately  preceded 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egypt, 


825 


the  Koman  rule,  was  not  carried  on  in  the  main  through 
the  medium  of  Egyptians.  It  was  only  through 
Egyptian  actfve  the  Komaus  that  Egypt  obtained  the  great  mar- 
traffic  to  the  -^ij^g  ^^^^^  ^l^e  East.  "  Not  twenty  Egyp- 
tian ships  in  the  year,"  says  a  contemporary 
of  Augustus,  "  ventured  forth  under  the  Ptolemies  from  the 
Arabian  gulf  ;  now  120  merchantmen  annually  sail  to  India 
from  the  port  of  Myos  Hermos  alone."  The  commercial 
gain,  which  the  Eoman  merchant  had  been  obliged  hitherto 
to  share  with  the  Persian  or  Arabian  intermediary,  flowed 
to  him  in  all  its  extent  after  the  opening  up  of  direct  com- 
munication with  the  more  remote  East.  This  result  was 
probably  brought  about  in  the  first  instance  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  Egyptian  ports  were,  if  not  directly 
barred,  at  any  rate  practically  closed,'  by  differential  cus- 
tom-dues against  Arabian  and  Indian  transports ; '  only 
by  the  hypothesis  of  such  a  navigation-act  in  favour  of 
their  own  shipping  could  this  sudden  revolution  of  com- 
mercial relations  be  explained.  But  the  traffic  was  not 
merely  violently  transformed  from  a  passive  into  an  active 
one  ;  it  was  also  absolutely  increased,  partly  in  conse- 
quence of  the  increased  inquiry  in  the  West  for  the  wares 
of  the  East,  partly  at  the  expense  of  the  other  routes  of 
traffic  through  Arabia  and  Syria.  For  the  Arabian  and  In- 
dian commerce  with  the  West  the  route  by  way  of  Egypt 

"  This  is  nowhere  expressly  said,  but  it  is  clearly  evident  from  the 
Periplus  of  the  Egyptian.  He  speaks  at  numerous  places  of  the  in- 
tercourse of  the  non-Roman  Africa  with  Arabia  (c.  7,  8),  and  con- 
versely of  the  Arabians  with  the  non-Roman  Africa  (o.  17,  21,  31  ; 
and  after  him  Ptolemaeus,  1.  17,  6),  and  with  Persia  (c.  27,  33),  and 
India  (c.  21,  27,  49)  ;  as  also  of  that  of  the  Persians  with  India  (c. 
36),  as  well  as  of  the  Indian  merchantmen  with  the  non-Roman 
Africa  (c.  14,  31,  32),  and  with  Persia  (c.  36)  and  Arabia  (c.  32). 
But  there  is  not  a  word  indicating  that  these  foreign  merchants  came 
to  Berenice,  Myos  Hermos,  or  Leuce  Come ;  indeed,  when  he  re- 
marks with  reference  to  the  most  important  mart  of  all  this  circle 
of  traffic,  Muza,  that  these  merchants  sail  with  their  own  ships  to 
the  African  coast  outside  of  the  Straits  of  Bab  El  Mandeb  (for  that 
is  for  him  ir4pav),  and  to  India,  Egypt  cannot  possibly  be  absent 
by  accident. 


326 


Egyjpt. 


[Book  VIII. 


more  and  more  proved  itself  the  shortest  and  the  cheap- 
est. The  frankincense,  which  in  the  olden  time  went  in 
great  part  by  the  land-route  through  the  interior  of  Ara- 
bia to  Gaza  (p.  313,  note  2),  came  afterwards  for  the  most 
part  by  water  through  Egypt.  The  Indian  traffic  received 
a  new  impulse  about  the  time  of  Nero,  when  a  skilled  and 
courageous  Egyptian  captain,  Hippalus,  ventured,  instead 
of  making  his  way  along  the  long  stretch  of  coast,  to  steer 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  directly  through  the 
open  sea  for  India  ;  he  knew  the  monsoon,  which  thence- 
forth the  mariners,  who  traversed  this  route  after  him, 
named  the  Hippalus.  Thenceforth  the  voyage  was  not 
merely  materially  shortened,  but  was  less  exposed  to  the 
land  and  sea  pirates.  To  what  extent  the  secure  state  of 
peace  and  the  increasing  luxury  raised  the  consumption  of 
Oriental  wares  in  .the  West,  may  be  discerned  in  some 
measure  from  the  complaints,  which  were  in  the  time  of 
Vespasian  loudly  expressed,  regarding  the  enormous  sums 
which  went  out  of  the  empire  for  that  purpose.  The  whole 
amount  of  the  purchase-money  annually  paid  to  the  Ara- 
bians and  the  Indians  is  estimated  by  Pliny  at  100,000,000 
sesterces  (=£1,100,000),  for  Arabia  alone  at  55,000,000  ses- 
terces ( =£600,000),  of  which,  it  is  true,  a  part  was  cov- 
ered by  the  export  of  goods.  The  Arabians  and  the  In- 
dians bought  doubtless  the  metals  of  the  West,  iron,  cop- 
per, lead,  tin,  arsenic,  the  Egyptian  articles  mentioned 
formerly  (p.  277),  wine,  purple,  gold  and  silver  plate,  also 
precious  stones,  corals,  saffron,  balm ;  but  they  had  al- 
ways far  more  to  offer  to  foreign  luxury  than  to  receive 
for  their  own.  Hence  the  Roman  gold  and  silver  money 
went  in  considerable  quantities  to  the  great  Arabian  and 
Indian  emporia.  In  India  it  had  already  under  Vespasian 
so  naturalised  itself  that  the  people  there  preferred  to 
use  it.  Of  this  Oriental  traffic  the  greatest  part  went  to 
Egypt ;  and  if  the  increase  of  the  traffic  benefited  the 
government-chest  by  the  increased  receipts  from  customs, 
the  need  for  building  ships  and  making  mercantile  voyages 
of  their  own  elevated  the  prosperity  of  private  individuals. 


Chap.  XII.] 


Egyjpt. 


327 


While  thus  the  Koman  government  limited  its  rule  in 
Egypt  to  the  narrow  space  which  is  marked  off  by  the 
navigableness  of  the  Nile,  and,  whether  in  pusillanimity  or 
in  wisdom,  at  any  rate  never  attempted  with  consistent 
energy  to  conquer  either  Nubia  or  Arabia,  it  strove  as 
energetically  after  the  possession  of  the  Arabian  and  the 
Indian  wholesale  traffic,  and  attained  at  least  an  important 
limitation  of  the  competitors.  As  the  unscrupulous  pursuit 
of  commercial  interests  characterised  the  policy  of  the 
republic,  so  not  less  did  it  mark  that  of  the  principate, 
especially  in  Egypt. 

"We  can  only  determine  approximately  how  far  the 
direct  Eoman  maritime  traffic  went  towards 
commercial  the  East.  In  the  first  instance  it  took  the 
mtercourse.  direction  of  Barygaza  (Barotch  on  the  Gulf  of 
Cambay  above  Bombay),  which  great  mart  must  have 
remained  through  the  whole  imperial  period  the  centre  of 
the  Egyptio-Indian  traffic  ;  several  places  in  the  peninsula 
of  Gujerat  bear  among  the  Greeks  Greek  designations, 
such  as  Naustathmos  and  Theophila.  In  the  Flavian 
period,  in  which  the  monsoon-voyages  had  already  become 
regular,  the  whole  west  coast  of  India  was  opened  up  to 
the  Koman  merchants  as  far  down  as  the  coast  of  Malabar, 
the  home  of  the  highly-esteemed  and  dear-priced  pepper, 
for  the  sake  of  which  they  visited  the  ports  of  Muziris 
(probably  Mangaluru)  and  Nelcynda  (in  Indian  doubtless 
Nilakantha  from  one  of  the  surnames  of  the  god  Shiva, 
probably  the  modern  Nileswara)  ;  somewhat  farther  to  the 
south  at  Kananor  numerous  Roman  gold  coins  of  the 
Julio-Claudian  epoch  have  been  found,  formerly  exchanged 
against  the  spices  destined  for  the  Roman  kitchens.  On 
the  island  Salice,  the  Taprobane  of  the  older  Greek  navi- 
gators, the  modern  Ceylon,  in  the  time  of  Claudius  a  Ro- 
man official,  who  had  been  driven  thither  from  the  Ara- 
bian coast  by  storms,  had  met  with  a  friendly  reception 
from  the  ruler  of  the  country,  and  the  latter,  astonished, 
as  the  report  says,  at  the  uniform  weight  of  the  Roman 
pieces  of  money  in  spite  of  the  diversity  of  the  emperor's 


328 


Egypt. 


[Book  VIII. 


heads,  had  sent  along  with  the  shipwrecked  man  envoys  to 
his  Eoman  colleague.  Thereby  in  the  first  instance  it 
was  only  the  sphere  of  geographical  knowledge  that  was 
enlarged  ;  it  was  not  till  later  apparently  that  navigation 
was  extended  as  far  as  that  large  and  productive  island,  in 
which  on  several  occasions  Koman  coins  have  come  to  light. 
But  coins  are  found  only  by  way  of  exception  beyond  Cape 
Comorin  and  Ceylon,^  and  hardly  has  even  the  coast  of 
Coromandel  and  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  Further  Indian  peninsula  and  China,  maintained 
regular  commercial  intercourse  with  the  Occidentals. 

Chinese  silk  was  certainly  already  at  an  early  period  sold 
regularly  to  the  West,  but,  as  it  would  appear,  exclusively 
by  the  land-route,  and  through  the  medium  partly  of  the 
Indians  of  Barygaza,  partly  and  chiefly  of  the  Parthians  ; 
the  Silk-people  or  the  Seres  (from  the  Chinese  name  of  silk 
Sr)  of  the  Occidentals  were  the  inhabitants  of  the  Tarim- 
basin  to  the  north-west  of  Thibet,  whither  the  Chinese 
brought  their  silk,  and  the  Parthian  intermediaries  jeal- 
ously guarded  the  traffic  thither.  By  sea,  certainly,  indi- 
vidual mariners  reached  accidentally  or  by  way  of  explora- 
tion at  least  to  the  east  coast  of  Further  India  and  perhaps 
still  farther;  the  port  of  Cattigara  known  to  the  Komans  at 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century  a.d.  was  one  of  the 
Chinese  coast-towns,  perhaps  Hang-chow-foo  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Yang-tse-kiang.  The  report  of  the  Chinese  annals 
that  in  166  a.d.  an  embassy  of  the  emperor  Antun  of  Ta- 
(that  is  Great)  Tsin  (Eome)  landed  in  Ji-nan  (Tonkin), 
and  thence  by  the  land-route  arrived  at  the  capital  Lo- 
yang  (or  Ho-nan-foo  on  the  middle  Hoang-ho)  to  the  em- 
peror Hwan-ti,  may  warrantably  be  referred  to  Rome  and 

'  In  Bamanghati  (district  Singhbhum)  westward  from  Calcutta,  a 
great  treasure  of  gold  coins  of  Roman  emperors  (Gordian  and  Con- 
stantine  are  named),  is  said  to  have  come  to  light  (Beglar,  in  Cun- 
ningham's Archaeological  Survey  of  India,  vol.  xiii.  p.  72) ;  hut  such 
an  isolated  find  does  not  prove  that  regular  intercouse  extended  so 
far.  In  Further  India  and  China  Roman  coins  have  never,  so  far 
as  we  know,  been  found. 


Chap.  XII.  1 


Egypt 


329 


the  emperor  Antoninus.  This  event,  however,  and  what 
the  Chinese  authorities  mention  as  to  a  similar  appearance 
of  the  Romans  in  their  country  in  the  course  of  the  third 
century,  can  hardly  be  understood  of  public  missions, 
since  as  to  these  Roman  statements  would  hardly  have 
been  wanting  ;  but  possibly  individual  captains  may  have 
passed  with  the  Chinese  court  as  messengers  of  their  gov- 
ernment. These  connections  had  perceptible  consequences 
only  in  so  far  as  the  earlier  tales  regarding  the  procuring 
of  silk  gradually  gave  way  to  better  knowledge. 


CHAPTER  Xm. 


THE  AFRICAN  PROVINCES. 

North  Africa,  in  a  physical  and  ethnographic  point  of 
view,  stands  by  itself  like  an  island.  Nature 
and  the  Berber  has  isolated  it  On  all  sidcs,  partly  by  the  At- 
stock.  lantic  and  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  partly  by 

the  widely-extended  shore,  incapable  of  cultivation,  of 
the  Great  Syrtis  below  the  modern  Fezzan,  and,  in  con- 
nection therewith,  by  the  desert,  likewise  closed  against 
cultivation,  which  shuts  off  the  steppe-land  and  the  oases 
of  the  Sahara  to  the  south.  Ethnographically  the  popu- 
lation of  this  wide  region  forms  a  great  family  of  peoples, 
distinguished  most  sharply  from  the  Blacks  of  the  south, 
but  likewise  strictly  separated  from  the  Egyptians,  al- 
though perhaps  with  these  there  may  once  have  subsisted 
a  primeval  fellowship.  They  call  themselves  in  the  Eiff" 
near  Tangier  Amazigh,  in  the  Sahara  Imoshagh,  and  the 
same  name  meets  us,  referred  to  particular  tribes,  on 
several  occasions  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  thus  as 
Maxyes  at  the  founding  of  Carthage  (ii.  14),  as  Mazi- 
ces  in  the  Roman  period  at  different  places  of  the 
Mauretanian  north  coast ;  the  similar  designation  that  has 
remained  with  the  scattered  remnants  jDroves  that  this  great 
people  has  once  had  a  consciousness,  and  has  permanently 
retained  the  impression,  of  the  relationship  of  its  mem- 
bers. To  the  peoples  who  came  into  contact  with  them 
this  relationship  was  far  from  clear  ;  the  diversities  which 
prevail  among  their  several  parts  are  not  merely  at  the 
present  day  glaring,  after  in  the  past  thousands  of  years 
the  mixture  with  the  neighbouring  peoples,  particularly 
the  Negroes  in  the  south  and  the  Arabs  in  the  north,  has 
had  its  effect  upon  them,  but  certainly  were  as  consider- 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces, 


331 


able  even  before  these  foreign  influences  as  their  extension 
in  space  demands.  A  universally  valid  expression  for  the 
nation  as  such  is  wanting  in  all  other  idioms  ;  even  where 
the  name  goes  beyond  the  designation  of  stock, '  it  yet  does 
not  describe  the  circle  as  a  whole.  That  of  Libyans,  which 
the  Egyptians,  and  after  their  precedent  the  Greeks  use, 
belongs  originally  to  the  most  easterly  tribes  coming  into 
contact  with  Egypt,  and  has  always  remained  specially 
pertaining  to  those  of  the  eastern  half.  That  of  Nomades, 
of  Greek  origin,  expresses  in  the  first  instance  only  the 
absence  of  settlement,  and  then  in  its  Koman  transforma- 
tion as  Numidians,  has  become  associated  with  that  terri- 
tory which  king  Massinissa  united  under  his  sway.  That 
of  Mauri,  of  native  origin,  and  current  among  the  later 
Greeks  as  well  as  the  Eomans,  is  restricted  to  the  western 
parts  of  the  land,  and  continues  in  use  for  the  kingdoms 
here  formed  and  the  Roman  provinces  that  have  proceeded 
from  them.  The  tribes  of  the  south  are  comprehended 
under  the  name  of  the  Gaetulians,  which,  however,  the 
stricter  use  of  language  limits  to  the  region  on  the  At- 
lantic Ocean  to  the  south  of  Mauretania.  We  are  accus- 
tomed to  designate  the  nation  by  the  name  of  Berbers, 
which  the  Arabs  apply  to  the  northern  tribes. 

As  to  their  type  they  stand  far  nearer  to  the  Indo-Ger- 
manic  than  to  the  Semitic,  and  form  even  at 

Type, 

the  present  day,  when  since  the  invasion  of 
Islam  North  Africa  has  fallen  to  the  Semitic  race,  the  sharp- 
est contrast  to  the  Arabs.  It  is  not  without  warrant  that 
various  geographers  of  antiquity  have  refused  to  let  Africa 

'  The  designation  Afer  does  not  belong  to  tins  series.  So  far  as 
we  can  follow  it  back  in  linguistic  usage,  it  is  never  given  to  the 
Berber  in  contrast  to  other  African  stocks,  but  to  every  inhabitant 
ot  the  Continent  lying  over  against  Sicily,  and  particularly  also  to 
the  Phoenician  ;  if  it  has  designated  a  definite  people  at  all,  this 
can  only  have  been  that,  with  which  the  Komans  here  first  and 
chiefly  came  into  contact  (comp.  Suetonius,  xita  Terent.).  Reasons 
philological  and  real  oppose  themselves  to  our  attempt  in  i.  199  to 
trace  back  the  word  to  the  name  of  the  Hebrews ;  a  satisfactory 
etymology  has  not  yet  been  found  for  it. 


332 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


pass  at  all  as  a  third  continent,  but  have  attached  Egypt 
to  Asia  and  the  Berber  territory  to  Europe.  As  the  plants 
and  animals  of  northern  Africa  correspond  in  the  main  to 
those  of  the  opposite  south-European  coast,  so  the  type 
of  man,  where  it  has  been  preserved  unmixed,  points  alto- 
gether to  the  north : — the  fair  hair  and  the  blue  eyes  of 
a  considerable  portion,  the  tall  stature,  the  slender  but 
powerfully  knit  form,  the  prevailing  monogamy  and  re- 
spect for  the  position  of  woman,  the  lively  and  emotional 
temperament,  the  inclination  to  settled  life,  the  community 
founded  on  the  full  equality  in  rights  among  the  grown-up 
men,  which  in  the  usual  confederation  of  several  communi- 
ties afibrds  also  the  basis  for  the  formation  of  a  state/  To 
strictly  political  development  and  to  full  civilisation  this 
nation,  hemmed  round  by  Negroes,  Egyptians,  Phoeni- 
cians, Romans,  Arabs,  at  no  time  attained  ;  it  must  have 
approximated  to  it  under  the  government  of  Massinissa. 
The  alphabet,  derived  independently  from  the  Phoenician, 
of  which  the  Berbers  made  use  under  Eoman  rule,  and 
which  those  of  the  Sahara  still  use  at  the  present  day,  as 
well  as  the  feeling  which,  as  we  have  observed,  they  once 
had  of  common  national  relationship,  may  probably  be 
referred  to  the  great  Numidian  king  and  his  descendants, 
whom  the  later  generations  worshipped  as  gods.^    In  spite 

^  A  good  observer,  Charles  Tissot  {Geogr.  de  la  province  romaine  cle 
VAfrique,  i.  p.  403),  testifies  that  upwards  of  a  third  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Morocco  have  fair  or  brown  hair,  and  in  the  colony  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Riff  in  Tangier  two-thirds.  The  women  made 
the  impression  on  him  of  those  of  Berry  and  of  Auvergne.  Sur  les 
Tiauts  sommets  de  la  chaine  atlantique,  d'apres  les  renseignements  qui 
m^ont  etefournis^  la  population  tout  entUre  serait  vemarquaUement 
blonde.  Elle  aurait  les  yeux  hleus,  gris  ou  '^mrts,  comme  ceux  des 
chats,^^  pour  reproduire  V expression  meme  dont  s''est  servi  le  cJieikh 
qui  me  renseignait.  The  same  phenomenon  meets  us  in  the  moun- 
tain masses  of  Grand  Kabylia  and  of  the  Aures,  as  well  as  on  the  Tu- 
nisian island  Jerba  and  the  Canary  Islands.  The  Egyptian  repre- 
sentations also  show  to  us  the  Libu  not  red,  like  the  Egyptians,  but 
white,  and  with  fair  or  brown  hair. 

^  Cyprian,  Quod  idola  dii  non  sint,  c.  2 :  Mauri  manifeste  reges 
suos  colunt  nec  ullo  velamento  lioe  nomen  ohtexunt.  Tertullian,  Apolog. 


Chap.  XIIT.]       The  African  Provinces.  333 

of  all  invasions  they  have  maintained  their  original  ter- 
ritory to  a  considerable  extent ;  in  Morocco  now  about 
two- thirds,  in  Algiers  about  half  of  the  inhabitants  are 
reckoned  of  Berber  descent. 

The  imiDigration,  to  which  all  the  coasts  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean were  subjected  in  the  earliest  times, 
h^SgraSon.  ^^^^  North  Africa  Phoenician.  To  the  Phoe- 
nicians the  natives  had  to  give  up  the  largest 
and  best  part  of  the  north  coast ;  the  Phoenicians  withdrew 
all  North  Africa  from  Greek  civilisation.  The  Great  Syr- 
tis  again  forms  the  linguistic  as  well  as  the  political  line 
of  separation  ;  as  on  the  east  the  Pentapolis  of  Cyrene  be- 
longs to  the  Greek  circle,  so  on  the  west  the  Tripolis 
(Tripoli)  of  Great-Leptis  became  and  remained  Phoeni- 
cian. We  have  formerly  narrated  how  the  Phoenicians 
after  several  hundred  years  of  struggle  succumbed  to  the 
Romans.  Here  we  have  to  give  account  of  the  fortunes 
of  Africa,  after  the  Romans  had  occupied  the  Carthagin- 
ian territory  and  had  made  the  neighbouring  regions 
dependent  on  them. 

The  short-sightedness  and  narrow-mindedness — we  may 
here  say,  the  perversity  and  brutality — of  the 

The  government  .  ^  i.     i!    xi,      -o  it 

of  the  Roman  torcign  government  oi  the  Roman  republic 
repubhc.  j^^^  nowlierc  so  full  sway  as  in  Africa.  In 
southern  Gaul,  and  still  more  in  Spain,  the  Roman  govern- 
ment pursued  at  least  a  consolidated  extension  of  territory, 
and,  half  involuntarily,  the  rudiments  of  Latinising ;  in  the 
Greek  East  the  foreign  rule  was  mitigated  and  often  al- 
most compensated  by  the  power  of  Hellenism  forcing  the 
hand  even  of  hard  policy.    But  as  to  this  third  continent 

24  :  Mauretaniae  {dei  sunt)  reguU  sui.  G.  I.  L.  viii.,  8834:  lemsali 
L.  Percenius  L.  f.  Stel.  Eogatus  v.  (s.  I.  a.),  found  at  Thubusuptu 
in  tlie  region  of  Sitifis,  wliich  place  may  well  liave  belonged  to 
the  Numidian  kingdom  of  Hiempsal.  Thus  tbe  inscription  also  of 
Tlmbursicum  [G.  I.  L.  viii.  n.  7*  (comp.  Eph.  epigr.  v.  p.  651,  n. 
1478)  must  have  rather  been  badly  copied  than  falsified.  Still,  in 
the  year  70,  it  was  alleged  that  in  Mauretania  a  pretender  to  the 
throne  had  ascribed  to  himself  the  name  of  Juba  (Tacitus,  Hist.  ii. 
58). 


334  The  African  Provinces,        [Book  vm. 

the  old  national  hatred  towards  the  Poeni  seemed  still  to 
reach  j3eyond  the  grave  of  Hannibal's  native  city.  The 
Komans  held  fast  the  territory  which  Carthage  had  poss- 
essed at  its  fall,  but  less  in  order  to  develop  it  for  their 
own  benefit  than  to  prevent  its  benefiting  others,  not  to 
awaken  new  life  there,  but  to  watch  the  dead  body  ;  it  was 
fear  and  envy,  rather  than  ambition  and  covetousness,  that 
created  the  province  of  Africa.  Under  the  republic  it 
had  not  a  history  ;  the  war  with  Jugurtha  was  for  Africa 
nothing  but  a  lion -hunt,  and  its  historical  significance  lay 
in  its  connection  with  the  republican  party  struggles. 
The  land  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  turned  to  full  ac- 
count by  Roman  speculation  ;  but  neither  might  the  de- 
stroyed great  city  rise  up  afresh,  nor  might  a  neighbour- 
ing town  develop  into  a  similar  prosperity  ;  there  were 
here  no  standing  camps  as  in  Spain  and  Gaul ;  the  Roman 
province,  with  its  narrow  bounds,  was  on  all  sides  sur- 
rounded by  relatively  civilised  territory  of  the  dependent 
king  of  Numidia,  who  had  helped  in  the  work  of  the 
destruction  of  Carthage,  and  now,  as  a  reward  for  it, 
received  not  so  much  the  spoil  as  the  task  of  protecting 
it  from  the  inroads  of  the  wild  hordes  of  the  interior. 
That  thereby  a  political  and  military  importance  was 
given  to  this  state,  such  as  no  other  client-state  of  Rome 
ever  possessed,  and  that  even  on  this  side  the  Roman 
policy,  in  order  merely  to  banish  the  phantom  of  Carth- 
age, conjured  up  serious  dangers,  was  shown  by  the  share 
of  Numidia  in  the  civil  wars  of  Rome ;  never  during  all  the 
internal  crises  of  the  empire  before  or  after  did  a  client- 
prince  play  such  a  part  as  the  last  king  of  Numidia  in  the 
war  of  the  republicans  against  Caesar. 

All  the  more  necessarily  the  state  of  things  in  Africa 

became  transformed  by  this  decision  of  arms, 
carpoucy!"'  other  provinces,  as  a  consequence  of 

the  civil  wars,  there  was  a  change  of  rule  ;  in 
Africa  there  was  a  change  of  system.  The  African  pos- 
session of  the  Phoenicians  itself  was  not  a  proper  dominion 
over  Africa  ;  it  may  be  in  some  measure  compared  with 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


335 


the  dominion  in  Asia  Minor  of  the  Hellenes  before  Alex- 
ander. Of  this  dominion  the  Komans  had  then  taken 
over  but  a  small  part,  and  of  that  part  they  had  nipped 
the  bud.  Now  Carthage  arose  afresh,  and,  as  if  the  soil 
had  only  been  waiting  for  the  seed,  soon  flourished  anew. 
The  whole  country  lying  behind — the  great  kingdom  of 
Numidia — became  a  Koman  province,  and  the  protection 
of  the  frontier  against  the  barbarians  was  undertaken  by 
the  Eoman  legionaries.  The  kingdom  of  Mauretania  be- 
came, in  the  first  instance,  a  Roman  dependency,  and 
soon  also  a  part  of  the  Roman  empire.  With  the  dictator 
Caesar  the  civilising  and  Latinising  of  Africa  took  their 
place  among  the  tasks  of  the  Eoman  government.  Here 
we  have  to  set  forth  how  the  task  was  carried  out,  first 
as  to  the  outward  organisation,  and  then  as  to  the  arrange- 
ments made  and  results  achieved  for  the  several  districts. 
Territorial  sovereignty  over  the  whole  of  North  Africa 
had  doubtless  already  been  claimed  on  the 
Roman  ruf?^  part  of  the  Eomau  republic,  perhaps  as  .a  por- 
tion of  the  Carthaginian  inheritance,  perhaps 
because  "  our  sea  "  early  became  one  of  the  fundamental 
ideas  of  the  Eoman  commonwealth  ;  and,  in  so  far,  all  its 
coasts  were  regarded  by  the  Eomans  even  of  the  developed 
republic  as  their  true  property.  Nor  had  this  claim  of 
Eome  ever  been  properly  contested  by  the  larger  states  of  . 
North  Africa  after  the  destruction  of  Carthage  ;  if  in  many 
places  the  neighbours  did  not  submit  to  the  dominion, 
they  were  just  as  little  obedient  to  their  local  rulers.  That 
the  silver  moneys  of  king  Juba  I.  of  Numidia  and  of  king 
Bogud  of  Mauretania  were  coined  after  the  Eoman  stand- 
ard, and  the  Latin  legend — little  as  it  was  suited  to  the 
relations  of  language  and  of  intercourse  then  subsisting 
in  North  Africa — ^was  never  absent  from  them,  was  the 
direct  recognition  of  the  Eoman  supremacy,  a  conse- 
quence, it  may  be  presumed,  of  the  new  organisation  of 
North  Africa  that  in  the  year  674  u.c.  was  ac- 
complished by  Pompeius.  The  generally  in- 
significant resistance  which  the  Africans,  apart  from  Car- 


336 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


tliage,  opposed  to  the  Komans,  came  from  tlie  descend- 
ants of  Massinissa  ;  after  king  Jugurtha,  and  later  king 
Juba,  were  vanquished,  the  princes  of  the  western  coun- 
try submitted  without  more  ado  to  the  dependence  re- 
quired of  them.  The  arrangements  which  the  emperors 
made  were  carried  out  quite  after  the  same  way  in  the 
territory  of  the  dependent  princes  as  in  the  immediate 
territory  of  Eome  ;  it  was  the  Roman  government  that 
regulated  the  boundaries  in  all  North  Africa,  and  con- 
stituted Boman  communities  at  its  discretion  in  the  king- 
dom of  Mauretania  no  less  than  in  the  province  of  Nu- 
midia.  We  cannot  therefore  speak,  in  the  strict  sense,  of 
a  Eoman  subjugation  of  North  Africa.  The  Romans  did 
not  conquer  it  like  the  Phoenicians  or  the  French  ;  but 
they  ruled  over  Numidia  as  over  Mauretania,  first  as  su- 
zerains, then  as  successors  of  the  native  governments.  It 
is  so  much  the  more  a  question,  whether  the  notion  of 
frontier  admits  of  application  to  Africa  in  the  usual  sense. 
The  states  of  Massinissa,  of  Bocchus,  of  Bogud,  as  also 
the  Carthaginian,  proceeded  from  the  northern  verge,  and 
all  the  civilisation  of  North  Africa  is  based  pre-eminently 
on  this  coast ;  but,  so  far  as  we  can  discern,  they  all  re- 
garded the  tribes  settled  or  roving  in  the  south  as  sub- 
jects, and,  if  they  withdrew  themselves  from  subjection,  as 
insurgents,  so  far  as  the  distance  and  the  desert  did  not 
by  doing  away  with  contact  do  away  with  control.  Neigh- 
bouring states,  with  which  relations  of  right  or  of  treaty 
might  have  subsisted,  can  hardly  be  pointed  out  in  the 
south  of  northern  Africa,  or  where  such  a  one  appears, 
such  as,  in  particular,  the  kingdom  of  the  Garamantes,  its 
position  is  not  to  be  strictly  distinguished  from  that  of 
the  hereditary  principalities  within  the  civilised  territory. 
This  was  the  case  also  as  regards  Roman  Africa  ;  as  for 
the  previous  rulers,  so  also  doubtless  for  Roman  civilisa- 
tion there  was  to  be  found  a  limit  to  the  south,  but  hardly 
so  for  the  Roman  territorial  supremacy.  There  is  never 
mention  of  any  formal  extension  or  taking  back  of  the 
frontier  in  Africa ;  the  insurrections  in  the  Roman  territory, 


Chap,  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


337 


and  the  inroads  of  the  neighbouring  peoples,  look  here  all 
the  more  similar  to  each  other,  as  even  in  the  regions  un- 
doubtedly in  Koman  possession,  still  more  than  in  Syria  or 
Spain,  many  a  remote  and  impassable  district  knew  noth- 
ing of  Eoman  taxation  and  of  Roman  recruiting.  For 
that  reason  it  seems  appropriate  to  connect  with  the  view 
of  the  several  provinces  at  the  same  time  the  slight  in- 
formation which  has  been  left  to  us  in  historical  tradition, 
or  by  means  of  preserved  monuments,  respecting  the 
friendly  or  hostile  relations  of  the  Romans  with  their 
southern  neighbours. 

The  former  territory  of  Carthage  and  the  larger  part  of 
the  earlier  kingdom  of  Numidia,  united  with 
Africa  and  it  by  the  dictator  Caesar,  or,  as  they  also 
Numidia.  called  it,  the  old  and  the  new  Africa,  formed 
until  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius  the  province  of 
that  name,  which  extended  from  the  boundary  of  Cyrene 
to  the  river  Ampsaga,  embracing  the  modern  state  of 
Tripoli  as  well  as  Tunis  and  the  French  province  of  Con- 
stantine  (iv.  535  f.).  The  government,  however,  for  this 
territory,  which  was  considerable,  and  required  an  ex- 
tended frontier-defence,  reverted  under  the  emperor  Gains 
in  the  main  to  the  twofold  division  of  the  republican  times, 
and  committed  the  portion  of  the  province  that  did  not 
stand  in  need  of  special  border-defence  to  the  civil  govern- 
ment, and  the  rest  of  the  territory  furnished  with  gar- 
risons to  a  military  commandant  not  further  amenable  to 
its  authority.  The  cause  of  this  was,  that  Africa  in  the 
partition  of  the  provinces  between  emperor  and  senate 
was  given  to  the  latter,  and,  as  from  the  state  of  things 
there  a  command  on  a  larger  scale  could  not  be  dispensed 
with,  the  co-ordination  of  the  governor  delegated  by  the 
senate  and  of  the  military  commandant  nominated  by  the 
emperor — which  latter  according  to  the  subsisting  hier- 
archy was  placed  under  the  orders  of  the  former — could 
not  but  provoke  and  did  provoke  collisions  between  these 
officials  and  even  between  emperor  and  senate.  To  this 
an  end  was  put  in  the  year  37  by  an  arrangement  that  the 
Vol.  II.— 22 


338 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIIL 


coast-land  from  Hippo  (Bonah),  as  far  as  the  borders  of 
Cyrene,  should  retain  the  old  name  of  Africa  and  should 
remain  with  the  proconsul,  whereas  the  western  part  of 
the  province  with  the  capital  Cirta  (Constantine),  as  well 
as  the  interior  with  the  great  military  camps  to  the  north 
of  the  Aures,  and  generally  all  territory  furnished  with 
garrisons,  should  be  placed  under  the  commandant  of  the 
African  legion.  This  commandant  had  senatorial  rank,  but 
belonged  not  to  the  consular,  but  to  the  praetorial  class. 
The  western  half  of  North  Africa  was  divided  at  the 
time  of  the  dictator  Caesar  (iv.  524)  into  the 
ix  taniiin  king-  two  kingdoms  of  Tingi  (Tangier),  at  that  time 
'  under  king  Bogud,  and  of  lol,  the  later  Cae- 

sarea  (Zershell),  at  that  time  under  king  Bocchus.  As 
both  kings  had  as  decidedly  taken  the  side  of  Caesar  in 
the  struggle  against  the  republicans  as  king  Juba  of  Nu- 
midia  had  taken  the  side  of  the  opposite  party,  and  as  they 
had  rendered  most  essential  services  to  him  during  the 
African  and  the  Spanish  wars,  not  merely  were  both  left 
in  possession  of  their  rule,  but  the  domain  of  Bocchus, 
and  probably  also  that  of  Bogud,  was  enlarged  by  the 
victor.^    Then,  when  the  rivalries  between  Antonius  and 

1  This  is  attested  for  the  year  705  as  regards  both  by  Dio,  xli.  42 
(comp.  Suetonius,  Caes.  54).    In  the  year  707  Bogud 
lends  assistance  to  the  Caesarian  governor  of  Spain 
{Bell.  Alex.  59,  60),  and  repels  an  incursion  of  the 
younger  Gnaeus  Pompeius  {Bell.  Afric.  23).  Bocchus, 
in  combination  with  P.  Sittius,  in  the  African  war  makes  a  success- 
ful diversion  against  Juba  and  conquers  even  the  important  Cirta 
{Bell.  Afr.  23  ;  Appian,  ii.  96  ;  Dio,  xliii.  3).    The  two  obtained  in 
return  from  Caesar  the  territory  of  the  prince  Massinissa  (Appian, 
iv.  54).    In  the  second  Spanish  war  Bogud  appears  in  the  army  of 
Caesar  (Dio,  xliii.  36,  38) ;  the  statement  that  the  son  of  Bocchus 
had  served  in  the  Pompeian  army  (Dio,  I.e.)  must  be  a  confusion, 
probably  with  Arabio  the  son  of  Massinissa,  who  certainly  went  to 
the  sons  of  Pompeius  (Appian,  I.e.).    After  Caesar's  death  Arabio 
possessed  himself  afresh  of  his  dominion  (Appian,  l.c.)^  but  after 
his  death  in  the  year  714  (Dio,  xlviii.  22)  the  Cae- 
sarian arrangement  must  have  again  taken  effect  in 
its  full  extent.    The  bestowal  on  Bocchus  and  Sittius  is  probably  to 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Promnces. 


339 


Caesar  the  younger  began,  king  Bogud  alone  in  the  west 
placed  himself  on  the  side  of  Antonius,  and  on  the  insti- 
gation of  his  brother  and  of  his  wife  invaded 
Spain  during  the  Perusine  war  (714)  ;  but  his 
neighbour  Bocchus  and  his  own  capital  Tingis  took  part 
for  Caesar  and  against  him.  At  the  conclusion  of  peace 
Antonius  allowed  Bogud  to  fall,  and  Caesar  gave  the  rest 
of  his  territory  to  king  Bocchus,  but  gave  Roman  muni- 
cipal rights  to  the  town  of  Tingis.  When,  some  years 
later,  a  rupture  took  place  between  the  two  rulers,  the  ex- 
king  took  part  energetically  in  the  struggle  in  the  hope  of 
regaining  his  kingdom  on  this  occasion,  but  at  the  capture 
of  the  Messenian  town  Methone  he  was  taken  prisoner  by 
Agrippa  and  executed. 

Already  some  years  before  (721)  king  Bocchus  had 
died  ;  his  kingdom,  the  whole  of  western 
Africa,  was  soon  afterwards  (729)  obtained  by 
25.  the  son  of  the  last  Numidian  king,  Juba  IL, 

the  husband  of  Cleopatra,  the  daughter  of 
Juba  II.  Antonius  by  the  Egyptian  queen.  ^  Both  had 
been  exhibited  to  the  Roman  public  in  early  youth  as  cap- 
be  understood  to  the  effect  that,  in  the  western  part  of  the  former 
Numidian  kingdom  otherwise  left  to  Bocchus,  the  colony  of  Cirta 
to  be  founded  by  Sittius  was  to  be  regarded  as  an  independent  Ro- 
man town,  like  Tingi  subsequently  in  the  kingdom  of  Mauretania. 
'  If,  according  to  Dio,  xl.  43,  Caesar  in  the  year  731,  after  the 
death  of  Bocchus,  nominates  no  successor,  but  makes 

33 

Mauretania  a  province,  and  then  (li.  15)  in  the  year 
30.  724,  on  occasion  of  the  end  of  the  queen  of  Egypt, 

there  is  mention  of  the  marriage  of  her  daughter 
with  Juba  and  his  investiture  with  his  father's  kingdom,  and,  lastly 
(liii.  26),  under  the  year  729  there  is  reported  Juba's 
investiture  with  a  portion  of  Gaetulia  instead  of  his 
hereditary  kingdom,  as  well  as  with  the  kingdoms  of  Bocchus  and 
Bogud  ;  only  the  last  account  confirmed  by  Strabo,  xvii.  3,  7,  p. 
828,  is  correct.    The  first  is  at  least  incorrect  in  its  way  of  appre- 
hending the  matter,  as  Mauretania  evidently  was  not  made  a 
province  in  721,  but  only  the  investiture  was  held  in 
abeyance  for  the  time  being  ;  and  the  second  partly 
anticipates,  since  Cleopatra,  born  before  the  triumph  about  719 
{Eph.  epigr.  i.,  p.  276),  could  not  possibly  be  married  in  724,  and 


c340 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


tive  kings'  children,  Juba  in  the  triumphal  procession  of 
Caesar  the  father,  Cleopatra  in  that  of  the  son  ;  it  was  a 
wonderful  juncture  that  they  now  were  sent  away  from 
Rome  as  king  and  queen  of  the  most  esteemed  vassal- 
state  of  the  empire,  but  it  was  in  keeping  with  the  circum- 
stances. Both  were  brought  up  in  the  imperial  family  ; 
Cleopatra  was  treated  by  the  legitimate  wife  of  her  father 
with  motherly  kindness  like  her  own  children  ;  Juba  had 
served  in  Caesar's  army.  The  youth  of  the  dependent 
princely  houses,  which  was  numerously  represented  at  the 
imperial  court  and  played  a  considerable  part  in  the  circle 
around  the  imperial  princes,  was  generally  employed  in 
the  early  imperial  period  for  the  filling  up  of  the  vassal 
principalities,  after  a  similar  manner,  according  to  free 
selection,  as  the  first  class  in  rank  of  the  senate  was  em- 
ployed for  the  filling  up  of  the  governorships  of  Syria  and 
Germany.  For  almost  fifty  years  (729-775  u.c,  b.c.  25 
-A.D.  23)  he,  and  after  him  his  son  Ptolemaeus,  bore  rule 
over  western  Africa  ;  it  is  true,  that,  like  the  town  Tingis 
from  his  predecessor,  a  considerable  number  of  the  most 
important  townships,  particularly  on  the  coast,  was  with- 
drawn from  him  by  the  bestowal  of  Roman  municipal 
rights,  and,  apart  from  the  capital,  these  kings  of  Mau- 
retania  were  almost  nothing  but  princes  of  the  Berber 
tribes. 

This  government  lasted  up  to  the  year  40,  when  it  ap- 
peared fitting  to  the  emperor  Gains,  chiefly  on 
proSnTes'^of*^^  accouut  of  the  rich  treasure,  to  call  his  cousin 
Tingr^*^^*^  to  Rome,  to  deliver  him  there  to  the  execu- 
tioner, and  to  take  the  territory  into  imperial 
administration.  Both  rulers  were  unwarlike,  the  father  a 
Greek  man  of  letters  after  the  fashion  of  this  period,  com- 
piling so-called  memorabilia  of  a  historical  or  geographi- 

is  partly  mistaken,  because  Juba  certainly  never  got  back  his  pa- 
ternal kingdom  as  such.  If  he  had  been  king  of  Numidia  before 
729,  and  if  it  had  been  merely  the  extent  of  his  kingdom  that  then 
underwent  a  change,  he  would  have  counted  his  years  from  the 
first  installation  and  not  merely  from  729. 


Chap.  XIIT.] 


The  African  Provinces. 


341 


cal  kind,  or  relative  to  the  history  of  art,  in  endless  books, 
noteworthy  by  his — we  might  say — international  literary 
activity,  well  read  in  Phoenician  and  Syrian  literature,  but 
exerting  himself  above  all  to  diffuse  the  knowledge  of  Ko- 
man  habits  and  of  so-called  Roman  history  among  the 
Hellenes,  moreover,  a  zealous  friend  of  art  and  frequenter 
of  the  theatre  ;  the  son  a  prince  of  the  common  type,  pass- 
ing his  time  in  court-life  and  princely  luxury.  Among 
their  subjects  they  were  held  of  little  account,  whether  as 
regards  their  personality  or  as  vassals  of  the  Romans  ; 
against  the  Gaetulians  in  the  south  king  Juba  had  on  sev- 
eral occasions  to  invoke  the  help  of  the  Roman  governor, 
and,  when  in  Roman  Africa  the  prince  of  the  Numidians, 
Tacfarinas,  revolted  against  the  Romans,  the  Moors  flocked 
in  troops  to  his  banner.  Nevertheless  the  end  of  the  dy- 
nasty and  the  introduction  of  Roman  provincial  govern- 
ment into  the  land  made  a  deep  impression.  The  Moors 
were  faithfully  devoted  to  their  royal  house  ;  altars  were 
still  erected  under  Roman  rule  in  Africa  to  the  kings  of 
the  race  of  Massinissa  (p.  335).  Ptolemaeus,  whatever  he 
might  be  otherwise,  was  Massinissa's  genuine  descendant 
in  the  sixth  generation,  and  the  last  of  the  old  royal  house. 
A  faithful  servant  of  his,  Aedemon,  after  the  catastrophe 
called  the  mountain-tribes  of  the  Atlas  to  arms,  and  it 
was  only  after  a  hard  struggle  that  the  governor  Sueto- 
nius Paullinus — the  same  who  afterwards  fought  with  the 
Britons  (i.  195)  was  able  to  master  the  revolt  (in  the  year 
42).  In  the  organisation  of  the  new  territory  the  Romans 
reverted  to  the  earlier  division  into  an  eastern  and  a  west- 
ern half,  or,  as  they  were  thenceforth  called  from  the  cap- 
itals, into  the  provinces  of  Caesarea  and  of  Tingi  ;  or 
rather  they  retained  that  division,  for  it  was,  as  will  be 
afterwards  shown,  necessarily  suggested  by  the  physical 
and  political  relations  of  the  territory,  and  must  have  con- 
tinued to  subsist  even  under  the  same  sceptre  in  one  or 
the  other  form.  Each  of  these  provinces  was  furnished 
with  imperial  troops  of  the  second  class,  and  placed  under 
an  imperial  governor  not  belonging  to  the  senate. 


342 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


The  state  and  the  destinies  of  this  great  and  peculiar 
new  seat  of  Latin  civiHsation  were  conditioned  by  the  phys- 
ical constitution  of  North  Africa.  It  is  formed  by  two 
great  mountain-masses,  of  which  the  northern  falls  steeply 
towards  the  Mediterranean,  while  the  southern,  the  Atlas, 
slopes  off  slowly  in  the  Sahara-steppe  dotted  with  numer- 
ous oases  towards  the  desert  proper.  A  smaller  steppe, 
similar  on  the  whole  to  the  Sahara  and  dotted  with  numer- 
ous salt-lakes,  serves  in  the  middle  portion,  the  modern 
Algeria,  to  separate  the  mountains  on  the  north  coast  and 
those  on  the  southern  frontier.  There  are  in  North  Africa 
no  extensive  plains  capable  of  culture  ;  the  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  has  a  level  foreland  only  in  a  few  dis- 
tricts ;  the  land  capable  of  cultivation,  according  to  the 
modern  expression  the  Tell,  consists  essentially  of  the 
numerous  valleys  and  slopes  within  those  two  broad 
mountain-masses,  and  so  extends  to  its  greatest  width 
where,  as  in  the  modern  Morocco  and  in  Tunis,  no  steppe 
intervenes  between  the  northern  and  the  southern  bor- 
der. 

The  region  of  Tripolis,  politically  a  part  of  the  province 
of  Africa,  stands  as  respects  its  natural  rela- 
tions outside  of  the  territory  described,  and  is 
annexed  to  it  in  peninsular  fashion.  The  frontier-range 
sloping  down  towards  the  Mediterranean  Sea  touches  at 
the  bay  of  Tacapae  (Gabes),  with  its  foreland  of  steppe 
and  salt-lake,  immediaely  on  the  shore.  To  the  south  of 
Tacapae  as  far  as  the  Great  Syrtis  there  extends  along  the 
coast  the  narrow  Tripolitan  island  of  cultivation,  bounded 
inland  towards  the  steppe  by  a  chain  of  moderate  height. 
Beyond  it  begins  the  steppe-country  with  numerous  oases. 
The  protection  of  the  coast  against  the  inhabitants  of  the 
desert  is  here  of  special  difficulty,  because  the  high  margin 
of  mountains  is  wanting  ;  and  traces  of  this  are  apparent 
in  the  accounts  that  have  come  to  us  of  the  mihtary  ex- 
peditions and  the  military  positions  in  this  region. 

It  was  the  arena  of  the  wars  with  the  Garamantes. 
Lucius  Cornelius  Balbus,  who  in  his  younger  years  had 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


343 


fought  and  administered  under  Caesar  with  the  most  ad- 
venturous boldness  as  well  as  with  the  most 
the  G-ara-  cruel  recklessness,  was  selected  by  Augustus  to 
reduce  these  inconvenient  neighbours  to  quiet, 
and  in  his  proconsulate  (735)  he  subdued  the  interior  as 
far  as  Cidamus  (Ghadames),  twelve  days'  journey  inland 
from  Tripolis,  and  Garama  (Germa)  in  Fezzan  ; '  at  his 
triumph — he  was  the  last  commoner  who  celebrated  such 
an  one — a  long  series  of  towns  and  tribes,  hitherto  un- 
known even  by  name,  were  displayed  as  vanquished. 
This  expedition  is  named  a  conquest ;  and  so  doubtless 
the  foreland  must  have  been  thereby  brought  in  some 
measure  under  the  Roman  power.  There  was  fighting 
subsequently  on  many  occasions  in  this  region.  Soon 
afterwards,  still  under  Augustus,  Publius  Sulpicius  Qui- 
rinius  made  an  expedition  against  the  tribes  of  Marmarica, 
that  is,  of  the  Libyan  desert  above  Gyrene,  and  at  the 
same  time  against  the  Garamantes.  That  the  war  against 
Tacfarinas  under  Tiberius  extended  also  over  this  region 
will  be  mentioned  further  on.  After  its  termination  the 
king  of  the  Garamantes  sent  envoys  to  Eome,  to  procure 
pardon  for  his  having  taken  part  in  it.  In  the  year  70  an 
irruption  of  the  Garamantes  into  the  pacified  territory  was 
brought  about  by  the  circumstance  that  the  town  Oea  (Trip- 
oli) called  the  barbarians  to  help  the  Tripolis  in  a  quarrel, 
which  had  grown  into  war,  with  the  neighbouring  town 
Great-Leptis  (Lebda),  whereupon  they  were  beaten  back 

^  That  Balbus  carried  on  this  campaign  as  proconsul  of  Africa,  is 
shown  in  particular  bj  the  triumphal  Fasti  ;  but  the  consul  L. 
Cornelius  of  the  year  732  must  have  been  another  person,  since 
Balbus,  according  to  Velleius  ii.  51,  obtained  that  consular  governor- 
ship, ex privato  consularis,  i.e.  without  having  filled  a  curule  office. 
The  nomination,  therefore,  cannot  have  taken  place  according  to 
the  usual  arrangement  by  lot.  To  all  appearance  he  fell  into  dis 
grace  with  Augustus  for  good  reasons  on  account  of  his  Spanish 
quaestorship  (Drumann  ii.  609),  and  was  then,  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  twenty  years,  sent,  as  an  extraordinary  measure,  to 
Africa,  on  account  of  his  undoubted  aptitude  for  this  specially 
difficult  task. 


344 


The  Af  rican  Provinces. 


[Book  VIH. 


by  the  governor  of  Africa  and  pursued  to  their  own  settle- 
ments. Under  Domitian  on  the  coast  of  the  Great  Syrtis, 
which  had  been  from  of  old  held  by  the  Nasamones,  a  re- 
volt of  the  natives  provoked  by  the  exorbitant  taxes  had 
to  be  repressed  with  arms  by  the  governor  of  Numidia  ; 
the  territory  already  poor  in  men  was  utterly  depopulated 
by  this  cruelly  conducted  war.  The  emperor  Severus 
took  conspicuous  care  of  this  his  native  province — he  was 
from  Great-Leptis — and  gave  to  it  stronger  military  pro- 
tection against  the  neighbouring  barbarians.  With  this 
we  may  bring  into  connection  the  fact,  that  in  the  time 
from  Severus  to  Alexander  the  nearest  oases,  Cidamus 
(Ghadames),  Gharia  el  Gharbia,  Bonjem,  were  provided 
with  detachments  of  the  African  legion,  which,  it  is  true, 
owing  to  the  distance  from  the  headquarters,  could  not 
be  much  more  than  a  nucleus  for  the  probably  consider- 
able contingents  of  the  subject  tribes  here  rendering  ser- 
vices to  the  Komans.  In  fact  the  possession  of  these 
oases  was  of  importance  not  merely  for  the  protection  of 
the  coast,  but  also  for  the  traffic,  which  at  all  times  passed 
by  waj''  of  these  oases  from  the  interior  of  Africa  to  the 
harbours  of  Tripolis.  It  was  not  till  the  time  of  decay 
that  the  possession  of  these  advanced  posts  was  aban- 
doned ;  in  the  description  of  the  African  wars  under  Val- 
entinian  and  Justinian  we  find  the  towns  of  the  coast 
directly  harassed  by  the  natives. 

The  basis  and  core  of  Koman  Africa  was  the  province 

of  that  name,  including  the  Numidian,  which 
Namtfiar"^  was  a  brauch  from  it.  Eoman  civilisation  en- 
!         ^"'^     tered  upon  the  heritage  partly  of  the  city  of 

Carthage,  partly  of  the  kings  of  Numidia, 
and  if  it  here  attained  considerable  results,  it  may  never 
be  forgotten  that  it,  properly  speaking,  merely  wrote  its 
name  and  inscribed  its  language  on  what  was  already 
there.  Besides  the  towns,  which  were  demonstrably 
founded  by  the  former  or  by  the  latter,  and  to  which  we 
shall  still  return,  the  former  as  well  as  the  latter  led  the 
Berber  tribes,  inclined  at  any  rate  to  agriculture,  towards 


Chap.  XIII.] 


The  African  Provinces. 


345 


fixed  settlements.  Even  in  the  time  of  Herodotus  the 
Libyans  westward  of  the  bay  of  Gabes  were  no  longer  no- 
mads, but  peacefully  cultivated  the  soil ;  and  the  Numid- 
ian  rulers  carried  civilisation  and  agriculture  still  farther 
into  the  interior.  Nature,  too,  was  here  more  favourable 
for  husbandry  than  in  the  western  part  of  North  Afri- 
ca ;  the  middle  depression  between  the  northern  and  the 
southern  range  is  indeed  here  not  quite  absent,  but  the 
salt  lakes  and  the  steppe  proper  are  less  extensive  than  in 
the  two  Mauretanias.  The  military  arrangements  were 
chiefly  designed  to  plant  the  troops  in  front  of  the  mighty 
Aurasian  mountain-block,  the  Saint  Gotthard  of  the 
southern  frontier-range,  and  to  check  the  irruption  of  the 
non-subject  tribes  from  the  latter  into  the  pacified  terri- 
tory of  Africa  and  Numidia.  For  that  reason  Augustus 
placed  the  stationary  quarters  of  the  legion  at  Theveste 
(Tebessa),  on  the  high  plateau  between  the  Aures  and  the 
old  province  ;  even  to  the  north  of  it,  between  Ammae- 
dara  and  Althiburus,  Eoman  forts  existed  in  the  first  im- 
perial period.  Of  the  details  of  the  warfare  we  learn  little ; 
it  must  have  been  permanent,  and  must  have  consisted  in 
the  constant  repelling  of  the  border-tribes,  as  well  as  in 
not  less  constant  pillaging  raids  into  their  territory. 
Only  as  to  a  single  occurrence  of  this  sort  has  infor- 
mation in  some  measure  accurate  come  to  us  ; 
T^cfarinas!*^  namely,  as  to  the  conflicts  which  derive  their 
name  from  the  chief  leader  of  the  Berbers, 
Tacfarinas.  They  assumed  unusual  proportions ;  they 
lasted  eight  years  (17-24),  and  the  garrison  of  the  prov- 
ince otherwise  consisting  of  a  legion  was  on  that  account 
reinforced  during  the  years  20-22  by  a  second  desj)atched 
thither  from  Pannonia.  The  war  had  its  origin  from  the 
great  tribe  of  the  Musulamii  on  the  south  slope  of  the 
Aures,  against  whom  already  under  Augustus  Lentulus 
had  conducted  an  expedition,  and  who  now  under  his  suc- 
cessor chose  that  Tacfarinas  as  their  leader.  He  was  an 
African  Arminius,  a  native  Numidian,  who  had  served  in 
the  Eoman  army,  but  had  then  deserted  and  made  him- 


346 


The  African  Provinces.        [Book  VIII. 


self  a  name  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  robbers.  The  insur- 
rection extended  eastwards  as  far  as  the  Cinithii  on  the  Lit- 
tle Syrtis  and  the  Garamantes  in  Fezzan,  westwards  over 
a  great  part  of  Mauretania,  and  became  dangerous  through 
the  fact  that  Tacfarinas  equipped  a  portion  of  his  men 
after  the  Eoman  fashion  on  foot  and  on  horseback,  and 
gave  them  Koman  training  ;  these  gave  steadiness  to  the 
light  bands  of  the  insurgents,  and  rendered  possible  regu- 
lar combats  and  sieges.  After  long  exertions,  and  after  the 
senate  had  been  on  several  occasions  induced  to  disregard 
the  legally  prescribed  ballot  in  filling  up  this  important 
post  of  command,  and  to  select  fitting  men  instead  of  the 
usual  generals  of  the  type  of  Cicero,  Quintus  lunius  Blae- 
sus  in  the  first  instance  made  an  end  of  the  insurrection  by 
a  combined  operation,  inasmuch  as  he  sent  the  left  flank 
column  against  the  Garamantes,  and  with  the  right  cover- 
ed the  outlets  from  the  Aures  towards  Cirta,  while  he  ad- 
vanced in  person  with  the  main  army  into  the  territory  of 
the  Musulamii  and  permanently  occupied  it  (year  22).  But 
the  bold  partisan  soon  afterwards  renewed  the  struggle, 
and  it  was  only  some  years  later  that  the  proconsul  Pub- 
lius  Cornelius  Dolabella,  after  he  had  nipped  in  the  bud 
the  threatened  revolt  of  the  just  chastised  Musulamii  by 
the  execution  of  all  the  leaders,  was  able  with  the  aid  of  the 
troops  of  the  king  of  Mauretania  to  force  a  battle  in  his 
territory  near  Auzia  (Aumale),  in  which  Tacfarinas  lost  his 
life.  With  the  fall  of  the  leader,  as  is  usual  in  national 
wars  of  insurrection,  this  movement  had  an  end.' 

1  The  tribes  whom  Tacitus  names  in  his  account  of  the  war,  far 
from  clear,  as  always,  in  a  geographical  point  of  view,  may  be  in 
some  measure  determined ;  and  the  position  between  the  Leptita- 
nian  and  the  Cirtensian  columns  {Ann.  iii.  74)  points  for  the  middle 
column  to  Theveste.  The  town  of  Thala  {Ann.  iii.  20)  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  sought  above  Ammaedara,  but  is  probably  the  Thala  of  the 
Jugurtlian  war  in  the  vicinity  of  Capsa.  The  last  section  of  the  war 
has  its  arena  in  western  Mauretania  about  Auzia  (iv.  25),  and 
accordingly  in  Thubuscum  (iv.  24)  there  lurks  possibly  Thubusuptu 
or  Thubusuctu.  The  river  Pagyda  {Ann.  iii.  20)  is  quite  indefin- 
able. 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


347 


From  later  times  detailed  accounts  of  a  like  kind  are 
lacking  ;  we  can  only  follow  out  in  some  meas- 

Later  conflicts.  ,  ^  ^  t>  t  e 

ure  the  general  course  oi  the  Koman  work  oi 
pacification.  The  tribes  to  the  south  of  Aures  were,  if  not 
extirpated,  at  any  rate  ejected  and  transplanted  into  the 
northern  districts  ;  so  in  particular  the  Musulamii  them- 
selves/ against  whom  an  expedition  was  once  more  con- 
ducted under  Claudius.  The  demand  made  by  Tacfarinas 
to  have  settlements  assigned  to  him  and  his  people  with- 
in the  civilised  territory,  to  which  Tiberius,  as  was  rea- 
sonable, only  replied  by  redoubling  his  exertions  to  anni- 
hilate the  daring  claimant,  was  supplementarily  after  a 
certain  measure  fulfilled  in  this  way,  and  probably  contrib- 
uted materially  to  the  consolidation  of  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment. The  camps  more  and  more  enclosed  the  Aura- 
sian  mountain-block.  The  garrisons  were  pushed  farther 
forward  into  the  interior ;  the  headquarters  themselves 
moved  under  Trajan  away  from  Theveste  farther  to  the 
west  ;  the  three  considerable  Roman  settlements  on  the 
northern  slope  of  the  Aures,  Mascula  (Khenschela),  at 
the  egress  of  the  valley  of  the  Arab  and  thereby  the  key  to 
the  Aures  mountains,  a  colony  at  least  already  under  Mar- 
cus and  Verus ;  Thamugadi,  a  foundation  of  Trajan's  ;  and 
Lambaesis,  after  Hadrian's  day  the  headquarters  of  the 
African  army,  formed  together  a  settlement  comparable  to 
the  great  military  camps  on  the  Rhine  and  on  the  Danube, 
which,  laid  out  on  the  lines  of  communication  from  the 
Aures  to  the  great  towns  of  the  north  and  the  coast  Cirta 

^  Ptolemaeus,  iv.  3,  23,  puts  the  Musulamii  southward  from  the 
Aures,  and  it  is  only  in  accord  therewith  that  they  are  called  in 
Tacitus  ii.  52,  dwellers  beside  the  steppe  and  neighbours  of  the 
Mauri;  later  they  are  settled  to  the  north  and  west  of  Theveste  (C 
/.  L.  viii.  270,  10667),  The  Nattabutes  dwelt  according  to  Ptole- 
maeus  I.  c.  southward  of  the  Musulamii ;  subsequently  we  find  them 
to  the  south  of  Calama  ( C.  L  L.  viii.  484).  In  like  manner  the 
Chellenses  Numidae^  between  Lares  and  Althiburus  {Eph.  epigr.  V. 
n.  639),  and  the  conventus  {civmm  Romanorum  ef)  Numidarum  qui 
Mascululae  habitant  (lb.  n.  597),  are  probably  Berber  tribes  trans- 
planted from  Numidia  to  the  proconsular  province. 


348 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIIT. 


(Constantine),  Calama  (Gelma),  and  Hippo  regius  (Bonah), 
secured  the  peace  of  tlie  latter.  The  intervening  steppe- 
land  was,  so  far  as  it  could  not  be  gained  for  cultivation, 
at  least  intersected  by  secure  routes  of  communication. 
On  the  west  side  of  the  Aures  a  strongly  occupied  chain 
of  posts  which  followed  the  slope  of  the  mountains  from 
Lambaesis  over  the  oases  Calceus  Herculis  (el  Kantara) 
and  Bescera  (Beskra),  cut  off  the  connection  with  Maure- 
tania.  Even  the  interior  of  the  mountains  subsequently 
became  Eoman  ;  the  war,  which  was  waged  under  the  em- 
peror Pius  in  Africa,  and  concerning  which  we  have  not 
accurate  information,  must  have  brought  the  Aurasian 
mountains  into  the  power  of  the  Romans.  At  that  time  a 
military  road  was  carried  through  these  mountains  by  a 
legion  doing  garrison  duty  in  Syria  and  sent  beycnd  doubt 
on  account  of  this  war  to  Africa,  and  in  later  times  we 
meet  at  that  very  spot  traces  of  Eoman  garrisons  and  even 
of  Eoman  towns,  which  reach  down  to  Christian  times ; 
the  Aurasian  range  had  thus  at  that  time  been  occupied, 
and  continued  to  be  permanently  occupied.  The  oasis 
Negrin,  situated  on  its  southern  slope,  was  even  already 
under  or  before  Trajan  furnished  by  the  Eomans  with 
troops,  and  still  somewhat  farther  southward  on  the  ex- 
treme verge  of  the  steppe  at  Bir  Mohammed  ben  Jfmis 
are  found  the  ruins  of  a  Eoman  fort ;  a  Eoman  road  also 
ran  along  the  southern  base  of  this  range.  Of  the  mighty 
slope  which  falls  from  the  tableland  of  Theveste,  the 
watershed  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  desert,  in 
successive  stages  of  two  to  three  hundred  metres  down  to 
the  latter,  this  oasis  is  the  last  terrace  ;  at  its  base  begins, 
in  sharp  contrast  towards  the  jagged  mountains  piled  up 
behind,  the  sand  desert  of  Suf,  with  its  yellow  rows  of 
dunes  similar  to  waves,  and  the  sandy  soil  moved  about  by 
the  wind,  a  huge  wilderness,  without  elevation  of  the 
ground,  without  trees,  fading  away  without  limit  into  the 
horizon.  Negrin  was  certainly  of  old,  as  it  still  is  in  our 
time,  the  standing  rendezvous  and  the  last  place  of  refuge 
of  the  robber  chiefs  as  well  as  of  the  natives  defying 


CHAr.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


349 


foreign  rule — a  position  commanding  far  and  wide  the 
desert  and  its  trading  routes.  Even  to  this  extreme  limit 
reached  Roman  occupation  and  even  Roman  settlement  in 
Numidia. 

Mauretania  was  not  a  heritage  like  Africa  and  Numidia. 

Of  its  earlier  condition  we  learn   nothing ; 

Roman  civilisa-    , ,  .   ,  ,  •  n       i  i  j 

tion  in  Maure-  there  cauuot  liave  been  considerable  towns 
even  on  the  coast  here  in  earlier  times,  and 
neither  Phoenician  stimulus  nor  sovereigns  after  the  type 
of  Massinissa  effectively  promoted  civilisation  in  this  quar- 
ter. When  his  last  descendants  exchanged  the  Numidian 
crown  for  the  Mauretanian,  the  capital,  which  changed  its 
name  lol  into  Caesarea,  became  the  residence  of  a  culti- 
vated and  luxurious  court,  and  a  seat  of  seafaring  and  of 
traffic.  But  how  much  less  this  possession  was  esteemed 
by  the  government  than  that  of  the  neighbouring  prov- 
ince, is  shown  by  the  difference  of  the  provincial  organi- 
sation ;  the  two  Mauretanian  armies  were  together  not 
inferior  in  number  to  the  Africano-Numidian,^  but  here 
governors  of  equestrian  rank  and  imperial  soldiers  of  the 
class  of  peregrim  sufficed.  Caesarea  remained  a  consider- 
able commercial  town  ;  but  in  the  province  the  fixed  settle- 
ment was  restricted  to  the  northern  mountain-range,  and 
it  was  only  in  the  eastern  portion  that  larger  inland  towns 
were  to  be  found.  Even  the  fertile  valley  of  the  most 
considerable  river  of  this  province,  the  Shelif,  shows  weak 
urban  development  ;  further  to  the  west  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Tafna  and  the  Malua  it  almost  wholly  disappears,  and 
the  names  of  the  divisions  of  cavalry  here  stationed  serve 
partly  in  place  of  local  designations.  The  province  of 
Tingi  (Tangier)  even  now  embraced  nothing  but  this  town 
with  its  immediate  territory  and  the  stripe  of  the  coast 
along  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  far  as  Sala,  the  modern  Rebat, 

'  In  the  year  70  the  troops  of  the  two  Mauretanias  amounted  to- 
gether, in  addition  to  militia  levied  in  large  numbers,  to  5  alae  and 
19  cohortes  (Tacitus,  Hist  ii.  58),  and  so,  if  we  reckon  on  the  aver- 
age every  fourth  as  a  double  troop,  to  about  15,000  men.  The  regu- 
lar army  of  Numidia  was  weaker  rather  than  stronger. 


350 


Tlie  African  Provinces.        [Book  VIII. 


while  in  tlie  interior  Roman  settlement  did  not  even  reach 
to  Fez.  No  land-route  connects  this  province  with  that  of 
Caesarea  ;  the  220  miles  from  Tingi  to  Eusaddir  (Melilla) 
they  traversed  by  water,  along  the  desolate  and  insubor- 
dinate coast  of  the  Riff.  Consequently  for  this  province 
the  communication  with  Baetica  was  nearer  than  that  with 
Mauretania ;  and  if  subsequently,  when  the  empire  was  di- 
vided into  larger  administrative  districts,  the  province  of 
Tingi  fell  to  Spain,  that  measure  was  only  the  outward  car- 
rying out  of  what  in  reality  had  long  subsisted.  It  was 
for  Baetica  what  Germany  was  for  Gaul  ;  and,  far  from 
lucrative  as  it  must  have  been,  it  was  perhaps  instituted 
and  retained  for  the  reason  that  its  abandonment  would 
even  then  have  brought  about  an  invasion  of  Spain  similar 
to  that  which  Islam  accomplished  after  the  collapse  of  the 
Roman  rule. 

Beyond  the  limit  of  fixed  settlement  herewith  indicated 
— the  line  of  frontier  tolls  and  of  frontier 
wars.^^^*'^^^^^  posts — and  in  various  non-civilised  districts 
enclosed  by  it,  the  land  in  the  two  Maureta- 
nias  during  the  Roman  times  remained  doubtless  with  the 
natives,  but  they  came  under  Roman  supremacy ;  there 
would  be  claimed  from  them,  as  far  as  possible,  taxes  and 
war-services,  but  the  regular  forms  of  taxation  and  of  levy 
would  not  be  applied  in  their  case.  For  example,  the  tribe 
of  Zimizes,  which  was  settled  on  the  rocky  coast  to  the 
west  of  Igilgili  (Jijeli)  in  eastern  Mauretania,  and  so  in 
the  heart  of  the  domain  of  the  Roman  power,  had  assigned 
to  it  a  fortress  designed  to  cover  the  town  of  Igilgili,  to 
be  occupied  on  such  a  footing  that  the  troops  were  not 
allowed  to  pass  beyond  the  radius  of  500  paces  round  the 
fort.^    They  thus  employed  these  subject  Berbers  in  the 

•  Inscription  C.  I.  L.  viii.  8369  of  the  year  129  :  Termini  positi 
inter  Igilgilitanos,  in  quorum  finibus  kastellum  Victoriae  positum  est, 
et  Zimiz{es),  ut  sciant  Zimizes  non  plus  in  usum  se  habere  ex  auctori- 
tate  M.  Vetti  Latronis  pro{curatoris)  Aug{usti)  qua{m)  in  circuitu  a 
mAiro  kast{elli)  p{edes)  D.  The  Zimlses  are  placed  by  the  Peutinge- 
rian  map  alongside  of  Igilgili  to  the  westward. 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


351 


Eoman  interest,  but  did  not  organise  them  in  the  Roman 
fashion,  and  hence  did  not  treat  them  as  soldiers  of  the 
imperial  army.  Even  beyond  their  own  province  the  irreg- 
ulars from  Mauretania  vs^ere  employed  in  great  numbers, 
particularly  as  horsemen  in  the  later  period,'  while  the 
same  did  not  hold  of  the  Numidians. 

How  far  the  field  of  the  Eoman  power  went  beyond  the 
Roman  towns  and  garrisons  and  the  end  of  the  imperial 
roads,  we  are  not  able  to  say.  The  broad  steppe-land 
round  the  salt-lakes  to  the  west  of  Lambaesis,  the  moun- 
tain-region from  Tlemsen  till  towards  Fez,  including  the 
coast  of  the  Riff,  the  fine  corn-country  on  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  southward  from  Sala  as  far  as  the  high  Atlas,  the 
civilisation  of  which  in  the  flourishing  time  of  the  Arabs 
vied  with  the  Andalusian,  lastly,  the  Atlas  range  in  the 
south  of  Algeria  and  Morocco  and  its  southern  slopes, 
which  afforded  for  pastoral  people  abundant  provision  in 
the  alternation  of  mountain  and  steppe  pastures,  and  de- 
veloped the  most  luxuriant  fertility  in  the  numerous  oases 
— all  these  regions  remained  essentially  untouched  by  the 
Roman  civilisation  ;  but  from  this  it  does  not  follow  that 
they  were  in  the  Roman  time  independent,  and  still  less 
that  they  were  not  at  least  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the 
imperial  domain.  Tradition  gives  us  but  slight  informa- 
tion in  this  respect.  We  have  already  mentioned  (p.  341) 
that  the  proconsuls  of  Africa  helped  to  make  the  Gaetu- 

'  If  the  praef ect  of  a  cohort  doing  garrison  duty  in  Numidia  held 
the  command  at  the  same  time  over  six  Gaetulian  tribes  (nationes, 
C.  I.  L.  V.  5267),  men  that  were  natives  of  Mauretania  were  em- 
ployed as  irregulars  in  the  neighbouring  province.  Irregular  Mau- 
retanian  horsemen  frequently  occur,  especially  in  the  later  imperial 
period.  Lusius  Quietus  under  Trajan,  a  Moor  and  leader  of  a 
Moorish  troop  (Dio,  Ixviii.  32),  no  Ai/^us  e/c  tTis  utttj/coou  Aifivrjs,  aXA.'  e| 
dSo|ou  Kai  a.iru)Ki(Tix4vr]s  effxa-Tias  (Themistius,  Or.  xvi.  p.  250  Dind.), 
was  without  doubt  a  Gaetulian  sheikh,  who  served  with  his  follow- 
ers in  the  Roman  army.  That  his  home  was  formally  independent 
of  the  empire,  is  not  affirmed  in  the  words  of  Themistius  ;  the 
"  subject  territory  "  is  that  with  Roman  organisation,  the  iaxarid  its 
border  inhabited  by  dependent  tribes. 


352 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


lians — that  is,  the  tribes  in  southern  Algeria — subject  to 
king  Juba  ;  and  the  latter  constructed  purple  dyeworks 
at  Madeira  (p.  368,  note).  After  the  end  of  the  Maureta- 
nian  dynasty  and  the  introduction  of  the  immediate  Ro- 
man administration,  Suetonius  Paullinus  crossed,  as  the 
first  Eoman  general,  the  Atlas  (p.  341),  and  carried  his 
arms  as  far  as  the  desert-river  Ger,  which  still  bears  the 
same  name,  in  the  south-east  of  Morocco.  His  successor, 
Gnaeus  Hosidius  Geta,  continued  this  enterprise,  and 
emphatically  defeated  the  leader  of  the  Mauri  Salabus. 
Subsequently  several  enterprising  governors  of  the  Mau- 
retanian  provinces  traversed  these  remote  regions,  and  the 
same  holds  true  of  the  Numidian,  under  whose  command, 
not  under  the  Mauretanian,  was  placed  the  frontier-range 
stretching  southward  behind  the  province  of  Caesarea ;  ^ 
yet  nothing  is  mentioned  from  later  times  of  war-expe- 
ditions proper  in  the  south  of  Mauretania  or  Numidia. 
The  Romans  can  scarcely  have  taken  over  the  empire  of 
the  Mauretanian  kings  in  quite  the  same  extent  as  these 
had  possessed  it ;  but  yet  the  expeditions  that  were  under- 
taken after  the  annexation  of  the  country  were  probably 
not  without  lasting  consequences.  At  least  a  portion  of 
the  Gaetulians  submitted,  as  the  auxiliary  troops  levied 
there  prove,  even  to  the  regular  conscription  during  the 
imperial  period  ;  and,  if  the  native  tribes  in  the  south  of 
the  Roman  provinces  had  given  serious  trouble  to  the  Ro- 
mans, the  traces  of  it  would  not  have  been  wholly  wanting.'* 
Probably  the  whole  south  as  far  as  the  great  desert  passed 
as  imperial  land,"  and  even  the  effective  dependence  ex- 

'  To  the  inscriptions,  which  prove  this  (C.  1.  L.  viii.  p.  xviii. 
747),  falls  now  to  be  added  the  remarkable  dedication  of  the  leader 
or  an  expeditionary  column  from  the  year  174,  found  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Geryville  {Eph.  epigr.  v.  n.  1043). 

"-'  The  tumultus  Gaetulicus  ( C.  I.  L.  viii.  6958)  was  rather  an  in- 
surrection than  an  invasion. 

^  Ptolemy  certainly  takes  as  boundary  of  the  province  of  Caesarea 
the  line  above  the  Shott,  and  does  not  reckon  Gaetulia  as  belonging 
to  it  ;  on  the  other  hand  he  extends  that  of  Tingis  as  far  as  the 
Great  Atlas.    Pliny  v.  4,  30,  numbers  among  the  subject  peoples  of 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Promnces. 


353 


tended  far  beyond  the  domain  of  Eoman  civilisation, 
which,  it  is  true,  does  not  exclude  frequent  levying  of 
contributions  and  pillaging  raids  on  the  one  side  or  the 
other. 

The  pacified  territory  experienced  attack,  properly  so 
called,  chiefly  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 
the  MoC?8into    shore  settled  around  and  along  the  Kiff,  the 
Spam.  Mazices,  and  the  Baquates ;  and  this  indeed 

took  place,  as  a  rule,  by  sea,  and  was  directed  chiefly 
against  the  Spanish  coast  (i.  73).  Accounts  of  inroads  of 
the  Moors  into  Baetica  run  through  the  whole  imperial 
period,'  and  show  that  the  Komans,  in  consequence  of  the 

Africa  '  *  all  Gaetulia  as  far  as  the  Niger  and  the  Ethiopian  frontier, " 
which  points  nearly  to  Timbuctoo.  The  latter  statement  will  accord 
with  the  official  conception  of  the  matter. 

'  Already  in  Nero's  time  Calpurnius  {Bgl.  iv.  40)  terms  the  shore 
of  Baetica  trucibus  dbnoxia  Mauris. — If  under  Pius  the  Moors  were 
beaten  off  and  driven  back  as  far  as  and  over  the  Atlas  {mta  Pii,  5  ; 
Pausanias  viii.  43),  the  sending  of  troops  at  that  time  from  Spain  to 
the  Tingitana  (C  /.  L.  iii.  5212-5215)  makes  it  probable  that 
this  attack  of  the  Moors  affected  Baetica,  and  the  troops  of  the  Tar- 
raconensis  marching  against  these  followed  them  over  the  straits. 
The  probably  contemporary  activity  of  the  Syrian  legion  at  the 
Aures  (p.  348)  suggests  moreover  that  this  war  extended  also  to  Nu- 
midia. — The  war  with  the  Moors  under  Marcus  {mta  Mard,  21,  22  ; 
vita  Severi,  2),  had  its  scene  essentially  in  Ba;etica  and  Lusitania. — 
A  governor  of  Hither  Spain  under  Severus  had  to  fight  with  the 
"rebels  '  by  water  and  by  land  {C.  I.  L.  ii.  4114). — Under  Alexan- 
der {vita^  58)  there  was  fighting  in  the  province  of  Tingi,  but  without 
mention  of  Spain  in  the  case. — From  the  time  of  Aurelian  {mta  Sat- 
urnini,  9)  there  is  mention  of  Mauro-Spanish  conflicts.  We  cannot 
exactly  determine  the  time  of  a  sending  of  troops  from  Numidia  to 
Spain  and  against  the  Mazices  {G.  1.  L.  viii.  2786),  where  presumably 
not  the  Mazices  of  the  Caesariensis  but  those  of  the  Tingitana  on  the 
Riff  (Ptolem.  iv.  1,  10),  are  meant ;  perhaps  with  this  is  connected 
the  fact  that  Gains  Vallius  Maximianus,  as  governor  of  Tingitana, 
achieved  in  the  province  Baetica  (according  to  Hirschfeld,  Wiener 
Stud.  vi.  123,  under  Marcus  and  Commodus)a  victory  over  the  Moors 
and  relieved  towns  besieged  by  them  {G.  I.  L.  ii.  1120,  2015) ;  these 
events  prove  at  least  that  the  conflicts  with  the  Moors  on  the  Riff 
and  the  associates  that  flocked  to  them  from  the  country  lying  be- 
hind did  not  cease.  When  the  Baquates  on  the  same  coast  besieged 
Vol.  II.— 33 


354 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII 


absence  of  energetic  oiBfensive,  found  themselves  here  per- 
manently on  a  defensive,  which  indeed  did  not  involve  a 
vital  danger  for  the  empire,  but  yet  brought  constant  in- 
security and  often  sore  harm  over  rich  and  peaceful  reg- 
ions. The  civilised  territories  of  Africa  appear  to  have 
suffered  less  under  the  Moorish  attacks,  probably  because 
the  headquarters  of  Numidia,  immediately  on  the  Maure- 
tanian  frontier,  and  the  strong  garrisons  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Aures,  did  their  duty.    But  on  the  collapse  of  the 

imperial  power  in  the  third  century  the  inva- 
i^nf  sio^  liere  also  began;  the  feud  of  Five  Peoples, 

as  it  was  called,  which  broke  out  about  the 
time  of  Gallienus,  and  on  account  of  which  twenty  years 
later  the  emperor  Maximianus  went  personally  to  Africa, 
arose  from  the  tribes  beyond  the  Shott  on  the  Numido- 
Mauretanian  frontier,  and  affected  particularly  the  towns 
of  Eastern  Mauretania  and  of  Western  Numidia,  such  as 
Auzia  and  Mileu.^ 

"We  come  to  the  internal  organisation  of  the  country. 

In  respect  of  language,  that  which  belonged 
the  Berber  propcrly  to  the  pcoplc  was  treated  like  the 
language.  Ccltic  in  Gaul  and  the  Iberian  in  Spain  ;  here 
in  Africa  all  the  more,  as  the  earlier  foreign  rule  had  al- 

the  pretty  remote  Cartenna  (Tenes)  in  the  Caesariensis  ( G.  I.  L.  viii. 
9663),  they  perhaps  came  by  sea.  Where  the  wars  with  the  Moors 
under  Hadrian  (vita^  5,  12)  and  Commodus  {vita^  13)  took  place  is 
not  known. 

^  More  information  than  in  the  scanty  accounts  of  "Victor  and  Eu- 
tropius  is  supplied  as  to  this  war  by  the  inscribed  stones,  G.  1.  L. 
viii.  2615, 8836,  9045,  9047.  According  to  these  the  Quinquegentiani 
may  be  followed  out  from  Gallienus  to  Diocletian.  The  beginning 
is  made  by  the  Baquates  who,  designated  as  Transtagnenses,  must 
have  dwelt  beyond  the  Shott.  Four  "kings"  combine  for  an  ex- 
pedition. The  most  dreaded  opponent  is  Faraxen  with  his  gentiles 
Fraxinenses.  Towns  like  Mileu  in  Numidia  not  far  from  Cirta  and 
Auzia  in  the  Caesariensis  are  attacked,  and  the  citizens  must  in  good 
part  defend  themselves  against  the  enemy.  After  the  end  of  the 
war  Maxim iau  constructs  great  magazines  in  Thubusuctu  not  far 
from  Saldae.  These  fragmentary  accounts  give  in  some  measure  an 
insight  into  the  relations  of  the  time. 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


355 


ready  set  the  example  in  that  respect,  and  certainly  no 
Roman  understood  this  popular  idiom.  The  Berber 
tribes  had  not  merely  a  national  language,  but  also  a 
national  writing  (p.  322)  ;  but  never,  so  far  as  we  see,  was 
use  made  of  it  in  official  intercourse,  at  least  it  was  never 
put  upon  the  coins.  Even  the  native  Berber  dynasties 
formed  no  exception  to  this,  whether  because  in  their 
kingdoms  the  more  considerable  towns  were  more  Phoe- 
nician than  Libyan,  or  because  the  Phoenician  civilisation 
prevailed  so  far  generally.  The  language  was  written  in- 
deed also  under  Roman  rule,  in  fact  most  of  the  Ber- 
ber votive  or  sepulchral  inscriptions  proceed  certainly 
from  the  imperial  period ;  but  their  rarity  proves  that  it 
attained  only  to  limited  written  use  in  the  sphere  of  the 
Roman  rule.  It  maintained  itself  as  a  popular  language 
above  all  naturally  in  the  districts,  to  which  the  Romans 
came  little  or  not  at  all,  as  in  the  Sahara,  in  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Riff  of  Morocco,  in  the  two  Kabylias  ;  but 
even  the  fertile  and  early  cultivated  island  of  the  Tripolis, 
Girba  (Jerba),  the  seat  of  the  Carthaginian  purple  manu- 
facture, still  at  the  present  day  speaks  Libyan.  Taken 
on  the  whole,  the  old  popular  idiom  in  Africa  defended 
itself  better  than  among  the  Celts  and  the  Iberians. 

The  language  which  prevailed  in  North  Africa,  when  it 
became  Roman,  was  that  of  the  foreign  rule 
the  Phoenician  whicli  preceded  the  Roman.    Leptis,  probably 
language.  TripoHtau,  but  that  near  Hadrumetum, 

was  the  only  African  town  which  marked  its  coins  with  a 
Greek  legend,  and  thus  conceded  to  this  language  an  at 
least  secondary  position  in  public  intercourse.  The  Phoe- 
nician language  prevailed  at  that  time  so  far  as  there  was 
a  civilisation  in  North  Africa,  from  Great  Leptis  to  Tingi, 
most  thoroughly  in  and  around  Carthage,  but  not  less  in 
Numidia  and  Mauretania.'    To  this  language  of  a  highly 

'  Apart  from  the  coins  this  is  proved  also  by  the  inscriptions. 
According  to  the  comparison,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  Herr  Eut- 
ing,  the  great  mass  of  the  old  Punic  inscriptions,  that  is,  those  writ- 
ten probably  before  the  destruction  of  Carthage,  falls  to  Carthage 


356 


The  Af  rican  Provinces.        [Book  VIII. 


developed  althougli  foreign  culture  certain  concessions 
were  made  on  the  change  in  the  system  of  administration. 
Perhaps  already  under  Caesar,  certainly  under  Augustus 
and  Tiberius,  as  well  the  towns  of  the  Eoman  province, 
such  as  Great  Leptis  and  Oea,  as  those  of  the  Mauretanian 
kingdom,  like  Tingi  and  Lix,  employed  in  official  use  the 
Phoenician  language,  even  those  which  like  Tingi  had 
become  Roman  burgess-communities.  Nevertheless  they 
did  not  go  so  far  in  Africa  as  in  the  Greek  half  of  the 
empire.  In  the  Greek  provinces  of  the  empire  the  Greek 
language  prevailed,  as  in  business  intercourse  generally, 
so  particularly  in  direct  intercourse  with  the  imperial 
government  and  its  officials  ;  the  coin  of  the  city  organ- 
ised after  the  Greek  fashion  names  also  the  emperor  in 
Greek.  But  in  the  African  the  coin,  even  if  it  speaks  in 
another  language,  names  the  emperor  or  the  imperial 
official  always  in  Latin.  Even  on  the  coins  of  the  kings 
of  Mauretania  the  name  of  the  Greek  queen  stands  pos- 
sibly in  Greek,  but  that  of  the  king — also  an  imperial 
official — uniformly  in  Latin,  even  where  the  queen  is 
named  beside  him.  That  is  to  say,  even  the  government 
did  not  admit  the  Phoenician  in  its  intercourse  with  the 
communities  and  individuals  in  Africa,  but  it  allowed 
it  for  internal  intercourse  ;  it  was  not  a  third  imperial 
language,  but  a  language  of  culture  recognised  in  its  own 
sj^here. 

But  this  limited  recognition  of  the  Phoenician  language 
did  not  long  subsist.  There  is  no  document  for  the  public 
use  of  Phoenician  from  the  time  after  Tiberius,  and  it 
hardly  survived  the  time  of  the  first  dynasty. '    How  and 

itself  (about  2500),  the  rest  to  Hadrumetum  (9),  Thugga  (the  famous 
Phoenico-Berber  one),  Cirta  (5),  lol-Caesarea  (1).  The  new  Punic 
occur  most  numerously  in  and  around  Carthage  (30),  and  generally 
they  are  found  not  unfrequently  in  the  proconsular  province,  also 
in  Great  Leptis  (5)  and  on  the  islands  of  Girba  (1)  and  Cossura 
(1)  ;  in  Numidia,  in  and  near  Calama  (23),  and  in  Cirta  (15)  ;  in 
Mauretania  hitherto  only 'in  Portus  Magnus  (2). 

'  The  coining  in  Africa  ceases  in  the  main  after  Tiberius,  and 
thereafter,  since  African  inscriptions  from  the  first  century  after 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


367 


when  tlie  change  set  in  we  do  not  know ;  probably  the 
government,  perhaps  Tiberius  or  Claudius,  spoke  the  deci- 
sive word  and  accomplished  the  linguistic  and  national 
annexation  of  the  African  Phoenicians  as  far  as  it  could 
be  done  by  state  authority.  In  private  intercourse  the 
Phoenician  held  its  ground  still  for  a  long  time  in  Africa, 
longer  apparently  than  in  the  mother  land  ;  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century  ladies  of  genteel  houses  in  Great 
Leptis  spoke  so  little  Latin  or  Greek,  that  there  was  no 
place  for  them  in  Koman  society  ;  even  at  the  end  of  the 
fourth  there  was  a  reluctance  to  appoint  clergymen  in  the 
environs  of  Hippo  Regius  (Bona),  who  could  not  make 
themselves  intelligible  in  Punic  to  their  countrymen  ;  these 
termed  themselves  at  that  time  still  Canaanites,  and  Punic 
names  and  Punic  phrases  were  still  current.  But  the 
language  was  banished  from  the  school  ^  and  even  from 
written  use,  and  had  become  a  popular  dialect ;  and  even 
this  probably  only  in  the  region  of  the  old  Phoenician 
civilisation,  particularly  the  old  Phoenician  places  on  the 
coast  that  stood  aloof  from  intercourse  on  a  large  scale.^ 

Christ  are  before  us  only  in  very  small  numbers,  for  a  considerable 
period  documents  fail  us.  The  coins  of  Babba  in  the  Tingitana, 
going  from  Claudius  down  to  Galba,  have  exclusively  Latin  legends  ; 
but  the  town  was  a  colony.  The  Latin-Punic  inscriptions  of  Great 
Leptis,  G.  I.  L.  viii.  7,  and  of  Naraggara,  C.  I.  L.  viii,  4636,  may 
doubtless  belong  to  the  time  after  Tiberius,  but  as  bi-lingual  tell 
rather  for  the  view  that,  when  they  were  set  up,  the  Phoenician 
language  was  already  degraded. 

^  From  the  expression  in  the  epitome  of  Victor,  that  the  emperor 
Severus  was  Latinis  litteris  sufficienter  instructus,  Graecis  sermonihus 
eruditus,  Punica  eloquentia  promptior,  quippe  genitus  apud  Leptim, 
we  may  not  infer  a  Punic  course  of  rhetoric  in  the  Tripolis  of  that 
time  ;  the  late  and  inferior  author  has  possibly  given  a  scholastic 
version  of  the  well-known  notice. 

^  On  the  statement  of  the  younger  Arnobius,  writing  about  460 
{ad  Psalm.  104,  p.  481  Migne  :  Cham  mro  secundus  jilius  Noe  a 
Rhinocoruris  usque  Oadira  habens  Unguas  sermone  Punico  a  parte 
Oaramantum^  Latino  a  parte  horeae^  harbarico  a  parte  meridiani, 
AetJiiopum  et  Aegyptiorum  ac  barbaris  interioribus  mrio  sermone 
numero  ugintz  duabus  Unguis  in  patriis  trecentis  nonaginta  et 
quattuor),  no  reliance  is  to  be  placed,  still  less  upon  the  nonsense 


358 


The  African  Provinces.        [Book  VIII. 


When  the  Arabs  came  to  Africa  they  found  as  language  of 
the  country  doubtless  that  of  the  Berbers,  but  no  longer 
that  of  the  Poeni ; '  with  the  Carthagino-Roman  civilisa- 
tion the  two  foreign  languages  disappeared,  while  the  old 
native  one  still  lives  in  the  present  day.  The  civilised 
foreign  dominions  changed  ;  the  Berbers  remained  like  the 
palm  of  the  oasis  and  the  sand  of  the  desert. 

The  heritage  of  the  Phoenician  language  fell  not  to 

Greek,  but  to  Latin.  This  was  not  involved  in 
ilnj^age!^       the  natural  development.   In  Caesar's  time  the 

Latin  and  the  Greek  were  alike  in  North  Africa 
foreign  languages,  but  as  the  coins  of  Leptis  already  show, 
the  latter  by  far  more  diffused  than  the  former  ;  Latin  was 
spoken  then  only  by  the  officials,  the  soldiers,  and  the 
Italian  merchants.  It  would  have  at  that  time  been 
probably  easier  to  introduce  the  Hellenising  of  Africa  than 
the  Latinising  of  it.  But  it  was  the  converse  that  took 
place.  Here  the  same  will  prevailed,  which  did  not  allow 
the  Hellenic  germs  to  spring  up  in  Gaul,  and  which  incor- 
porated Greek  Sicily  into  the  domain  of  Latin  speech  ;  the 
same  will,  which  drew  the  boundaries  between  the  Latin 
West  and  the  Greek  East,  assigned  Africa  to  the  former. 
In  a  similar  sense  the  internal  organisation   of  the 

country  was  regulated.  It  was  based,  as  in 
urban  organ-  Italy  ou  the  Latin  and  in  the  East  on  the  Hel- 
isation.  lenic  urban  community,  so  here  on  the  Phoeni- 

cian. When  the  Eoman  rule  in  Africa  began,  the  Cartha- 
ginian territory  at  that  time  consisted  predominantly  of 
urban  communities,  for  the  most  part  small,  of  which 
there  were  counted  three  hundred,  each  administered  by 
its  sufetes  ;  ^  and  the  republic  had  made  no  change  in  this 

of  Procopius,  de  hello  Vand.  ii.  10,  as  to  the  Phoenician  inscription 
and  language  in  Tigisis.  Authorities  of  this  sort  were  hardly  able 
to  distinguish  Berber  and  Punic. 

'  In  a  single  place  on  the  Little  Syrtis  the  Phoenician  may 
still  have  been  spoken  in  the  eleventli  century  (Movers,  PTion.  ii. 
2,  478). 

^  More  clearly  than  by  the  Latin  inscriptions  found  in  Africa, 
which  begin  too  late  to  illustrate  the  state  of  things  before  the  sec- 


Chap.  XIII.]       Tlie  African  Provinces. 


359 


.respect.  Even  in  the  kingdoms  tlie  towns  formerly  Phoe- 
nician had  retained  their  organisation  under  the  native 
rulers,  and  at  least  Calama — an  inland  town  of  Numidia 
hardly  of  Phoenician  foundation — had  demonstrably  the 
same  Phoenician  municipal  constitution  ;  the  civilisation 
which  Massinissa  gave  to  his  kingdom  must  have  con- 
sisted essentially  in  his  transforming  the  villages  of  the 
agricultural  Berbers  into  towns  after  the  Phoenician 
model.  The  same  will  hold  good  of  the  few  older  urban 
communities  which  existed  in  Mauretania  before  Augus- 
tus. So  far  as  we  see,  the  two  annually  changing  sufetes 
of  the  African  communities  coincide  in  the  main  with  the 
analogous  presidents  of  the  community  in  the  Italian  mu- 
nicipal constitution  ;  and  that  in  other  respects,  e.g.  in 
the  common  councils  among  the  Carthaginians  formed 
after  a  fashion  altogether  divergent  from  the  Italian  (ii. 
23),  the  Phoenician  urban  constitution  of  Roman  Africa 
has  preserved  national  peculiarities,  does  not  at  least  ad- 
mit of  proof.  ^  But  the  fact  itself  that  the  contrast,  if  even 
but  formal,  of  the  Phoenician  town  to  the  Italian  was  re- 
tained was,  like  the  permission  of  the  language,  a  recog- 

ond  century  A.  d.  ,  this  is  shown  by  the  four  contracts  of  patronatus 
from  the  time  of  Tiberius,  quoted  in  next  note,  concluded  by  two 
small  places  of  the  proconsular  province  Apisa  mains  and  Siagu, 
and  two  others  nowhere  else  mentioned,  probably  adjacent,  The- 
metra  and  Thimiligi ;  according  to  which  the  statement  of  Strabo 
(xvii.  3,  15,  p.  833)  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  war  the  Car- 
thaginian territory  numbered  300  towns,  appears  not  at  all  in- 
credible. In  each  of  those  four  smaller  places  there  were  sufetes  ; 
even  where  the  old  and  new  Punic  inscriptions  name  magistrates, 
there  are  regularly  two  sufetes.  That  these  are  comparatively  fre- 
quent in  the  proconsular  province,  and  elsewhere  can  only  be 
pointed  out  in  Calama,  serves  to  show  how  much  more  strongly  the 
Phoenician  urban  organisation  was  developed  in  the  former. 

'  The  contracts  of  patronatus  from  the  time  of  Caesar  {G.  I.  L. 
viii.  10525),  of  Augustus  {ih.  68  comp.  69),  and  Tiberius  ((7.  1.  L. 
V.  4919-4922),  concluded  by  the  senatus  populusque  of  African  com- 
munities (civitates)  of  peregrine  rights  with  Romans  of  rank,  appear 
to  have  been  entered  into  quite  after  the  Roman  fashion  by  the 
common  council,  which  represents  and  binds  the  community. 


360 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


nition  of  the  Phoenician  nationality  and  a  certain  security  ♦ 
for  its  continuance  even  under  Roman  rule.  That  it  was 
recognised  in  the  first  instance  as  the  regular  form  of  ad- 
ministration of  the  African  territory,  is  proved  by  the  es- 
tablishment of  Carthage  by  Caesar  primarily  as  a  Phoe- 
nician city  as  well  under  the  old  sufetes  '  as  in  a  certain 
measure  with  the  old  inhabitants,  seeing  that  a  great, 
perhaps  the  greatest  part  of  the  new  burgesses  was  taken 
from  the  surrounding  townships,  again  also  under  the 
protection  of  the  great  goddess  of  the  Punic  Carthage, 
the  queen  of  heaven  Astarte,  who  at  that  time  marched 
in  with  her  votaries  anew  into  her  old  abode.  It  is  true 
that  in  Carthage  itself  this  organisation  soon  gave  place 
to  the  Italian  colonial  constitution,  and  the  protecting 
patroness  Astarte  became  the — at  least  in  name — Latin 
Caelestis.  But  in  the  rest  of  Africa  and  in  Numidia  the 
Phoenician  urban  organisation  probably  remained  through- 
out the  first  century  the  predominant  one,  in  so  far  as 
it  pertained  to  all  communities  of  recognised  municipal 
rights  and  lacking  Roman  or  Latin  organisation.  Abolished 
in  the  proper  sense  it  doubtless  was  not,  as  in  fact  sufetes 
still  occur  under  Pius  ;  but  by  degrees  they  everywhere  make 
way  for  the  duoviri,  and  the  changed  principle  of  govern- 
ment entails  in  this  sphere  also  its  ultimate  consequences. 

'  On  the  coin  undoubtedly  struck  under  Caesar  (Miiller  Num  de 
VAfr.  ii.  149)  with  Kar{thago)  Veneris  and  Aristo  Mutumhal  Ricoce 
suf{etes)j  the  first  two  names  are  probably  to  be  taken  together 
as  a  Graeco-Phoenician  double  name,  such  as  elsewhere  is  not  rare 
(comp.  G.  I.  L.  V.  4932:  agente  Celere  Imilchonis  Gulalsaejiliosufete). 
Since  on  the  one  hand  sufetes  cannot  be  assigned  to  a  Roman  col- 
ony, and  on  the  other  hand  the  conducting  of  such  a  colony  to 
Carthage  itself  is  well  attested,  Caesar  himself  must  either  have 
subsequently  changed  the  form  of  founding  the  city,  or  the  found- 
ing of  the  colony  must  have  been  carried  into  effect  by  the  trium- 
virate as  a  posthumous  ordinance  of  the  dictator  (as  is  hinted  by 
Appian,  Pun.  136).  We  may  compare  the  fact  that  Curubis  stands 
in  the  earlier  time  of  Caesar  under  sufetes  (C.  /.  L.  viii.  10525),  in 
the  year  709  u.c.  as  a  Caesarian  colony  under  duoviri  {ib.  977) ;  yet 
the  case  is  different,  since  this  town  did  not,  like  Carthage,  owe  its 
existence  to  Caesar. 


Chap.  XIII.] 


The  African  Provinces. 


361 


The  transformation  of  Phoenician  urban  rights  into 
Italian  began  under  Caesar.    The  old  Phoe- 
J/thfphSeS"  nician  town  of  Utica,  predecessor  and  heiress 
itaUan"^"^  Carthage — as  some  compensation  for  the 

severe  injury  to  its  interests  by  the  restoration 
of  the  old  capital  of  the  country — obtained,  as  the  first  Ital- 
ian organisation  in  Africa,  perhaps  from  the  dictator  Cae- 
sar, Latin  rights,  certainly  from  his  successor  Augustus  the 
position  of  a  Roman  municipium.  The  town  of  Tingi  re- 
ceived the  same  rights,  in  gratitude  for  the  fidelity  which  it 
had  maintained  during  the  Perusine  war  (p.  339).  Several 
others  soon  followed ;  yet  the  number  of  communities  with 
Eoman  rights  in  Africa  down  to  Trajan  and  Hadrian  re- 
mained limited.'  Thenceforth  there  were  assigned  on 
a  great  scale — although,  so  far  as  we  see,  throughout  by 
individual  bestowal — to  communities  hitherto  Phoenician 
municipal  or  else  colonial  rights  ;  for  the  latter  too  were 
subsequently  as  a  rule  conferred  merely  in  a  titular  way 
without  settlement  of  colonists.  If  the  dedications  and 
memorials  of  all  sorts,  that  formerly  appeared  but  spar- 
ingly in  Africa,  present  themselves  in  abundance  from  the 
beginning  of  the  second  century,  this  was  doubtless  chiefly 
the  consequence  of  the  adoption  of  numerous  townships 
into  the  imperial  union  of  the  towns  with  best  rights. 

Besides  the  conversion  of  Phoenician  towns  into  Italian 
municipia  or  colonies,  not  a  few  towns  of  Italian  rights 

^For  Africa  and  Numidia  Plinj  (R.  JV.,  v.  4,  29  f.)  numbers  in 
all  516  communities,  among  which  are  6  colonies,  15  commu- 
nities of  Roman  burgesses,  2  Latin  towns  (for  the  oppidum  sti- 
pendiarium  must,  according  to  the  position  which  is  given  to  it, 
have  been  also  of  Italian  rights),  the  rest  either  Phoenician  towns 
(oppida),  among  which  were  30  free,  or  else  Libyan  tribes  (jwn 
civitates  tantum,  sed  pleraeque  etiam  nationes  iure  did  possunt). 
Whether  these  figures  are  to  be  referred  to  Vespasian's  time  or  to  an 
earlier,  is  not  ascertained  ;  in  any  case  they  are  not  free  from  errors, 
for,  besides  the  six  colonies  specially  adduced,  six  are  wanting 
(Assuras,  Carpi,  Clupea,  Curubi,  Hippo  Diarrhytos,  Neapolis),  which 
are  referable,  partly  with  certainty  partly  with  probability,  to  Cae- 
sar or  Augustus. 


362 


The  African  Provinces.        [Book  VIll. 


arose  in  Africa  by  means  of  the  settlement  of  Italian  colo- 
nists.   For  this  too  the  dictator  Caesar  laid 

Settlement  of      ii       n         t  j.  •    t      t  p 

Italian  colonists  the  loundation — as  mdeed  tor  no  province 
m  Africa.  perhaps  so  much  as  for  Africa  were  the  paths 
prescribed  by  him — and  the  emperors  of  the  first  dynasty 
followed  his  example.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the 
founding  of  Carthage  ;  the  town  obtained  not  at  once, 
but  very  soon,  Italian  settlers  and  therewith  Italian  or- 
ganisation and  full  rights  of  Roman  citizenship.  Beyond 
doubt  from  the  outset  destined  once  more  to  be  the  capi- 
tal of  the  province  and  laid  out  as  a  great  city,  it  rap- 
idly in  point  of  fact  became  so.  Carthage  and  Lugu- 
dunum  were  the  only  cities  of  the  West  which,  besides  the 
capital  of  the  empire,  had  a  standing  garrison  of  imperial 
troops.  Moreover  in  Africa — in  part  certainly  already  by 
the  dictator,  in  part  only  by  the  first  emperor — a  series 
of  small  country-towns  in  the  districts  nearest  to  Sicily, 
Hippo  Diarrhytus,  Clupea,  Curubi,  Neapolis,  Carpi,  Max- 
ula,  Uthina,  Great-Thuburbo,  Assuras,  were  furnished  with 
colonies,  probably  not  merely  to  provide  for  veterans,  but 
to  promote  the  Latinising  of  this  region.  The  two  colo- 
nies which  arose  at  that  time  in  the  former  kingdom  of 
Numidia,  Cirta  with  its  dependencies,  and  New-Cirta  or 
Sicca,  were  the  result  of  special  obligations  of  Caesar 
towards  the  leader  of  free  bands  Publius  Sittius  from 
Nuceria  and  his  Italiano-African  bands  (iv.  535,  648), 
The  former,  inasmuch  as  the  territory  on  which  it  was 
laid  out  belonged  at  that  time  to  a  client  state  (p.  339, 
note),  obtained  a  peculiar  and  very  independent  organ- 
isation, and  retained  it  in  part  even  later,  although  it  soon 
became  an  imperial  city.  Both  rose  rapidly  and  became 
considerable  centres  of  Roman  civilisation  in  Africa. 

The  colonisation,  which  Augustus  undertook  in  the 

kingdom  of  Juba  and  Claudius  carried  for- 
tenta"  ward,  bore  another  character.    In  Mauretania, 

still  at  that  time  very  primitive,  there  was  a 
want  both  of  towns  and  of  the  elements  for  creating  them  ; 
the  settlement  of  soldiers  of  the  Roman  army,  who  had 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


363 


served  out  their  time,  brought  civihsation  here  into  a 
barbarous  land.  Thus  in  the  later  province  of  Caesarea 
along  the  coast  Igilgili,  Saldae,  Eusazu,  Rusguniae,  Gu- 
nugi,  Cartenna  (Tenes),  and  farther  away  from  the  sea 
Thubusuptu  and  Zuccabar,  were  settled  with  Augustan, 
and  Oppidum  Novum  with  Claudian,  veterans  ;  as  also 
in  the  province  of  Tingi  under  Augustus  Zilis,  Babba, 
Banasa,  under  Claudius  Lix.  These  communities  with 
Eoman  burgess-rights  were  not,  as  was  already  observed, 
under  the  kings  of  Mauretania,  so  long  as  there  were  such, 
but  were  attached  administratively  to  the  adjoining  Roman 
province  ;  consequently  there  was  involved  in  these  settle- 
ments, as  it  were,  a  beginning  towards  the  annexation  of 
Mauretania. '  The  pushing  forward  of  civilisation,  such  as 
Augustus  and  Claudius  aimed  at,  was  not  subsequently 
continued,  or  at  any  rate  continued  only  to  a  very  limited 
extent,  although  there  was  room  enough  for  it  in  the  west- 
ern half  of  the  province  of  Caesarea  and  in  that  of  Tingi ; 
that  the  later  colonies  regularly  proceeded  from  titular 
bestowal  without  settlement,  has  already  been  remarked 
(p.  362). 

Alongside  of  this  urban  organisation  we  have  specially 
to  mention  that  of  the  large  landed  estates  in 
eSatlsl^^*^^^  this  province.  According  to  Roman  arrange- 
meot  it  fitted  itself  regularly  into  the  com- 
munal constitution  ;  even  the  extension  of  the  latifundia 
affected  this  relationship  less  injuriously  than  we  should 
think,  since  these,  as  a  rule,  were  not  locally  compact  and 
were  often  distributed  among  several  urban  territories. 
But  in  Africa  the  large  estates  were  not  merely  more  nu- 
merous and  more  extensive  than  elsewhere,  but  these  as- 

1  Pliny,  V.  1,  2,  says  indeed  only  of  Zulil  or  ratlier  Zili  regum 
dicioni  exempta  et  iura  in  Baeticam  petere  iussa,  and  this  might  be 
connected  with  the  transfer  of  this  community  to  Baetica  as  lulia 
Traducia  (Strabo,  iii.  1,  8,  p.  140).  But  probably  Pliny  gives 
this  notice  in  the  case  of  Zili  alone,  just  because  this  is  the  first 
colony  laid  out  beyond  the  imperial  frontier  which  he  names.  The 
burgess  of  a  Roman  colony  cannot  possibly  have  had  his  forum  of 
justice  before  the  king  of  Mauretania. 


364 


The  Af  rican  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


sumed  also  the  compactness  of  urban  territories  ;  around 
the  landlord's  house  there  was  formed  a  settlement,  which 
was  not  inferior  to  the  small  agricultural  towns  of  the 
province,  and,  if  its  president  and  common  councillors 
often  did  not  venture  and  still  oftener  were  not  able  to 
subject  such  a  fellow-burgess  to  the  full  payment  of  the 
communal  burdens  falling  upon  him,  the  de  facto  release 
of  these  estates  from  the  communal  bond  of  union  became 
still  further  marked,  when  such  a  possession  passed  over 
into  the  hands  of  the  emperor. '  But  this  early  occurred 
in  Africa  to  a  great  extent ;  Nero  in  particular,  lighted 
with  his  confiscations  on  the  landowners,  as  is  said,  of  half 
Africa,  and  what  was  once  imperial  was  wont  to  remain  so. 
The  small  lessees,  to  whom  the  domanial  estate  was  farmed 
out,  appear  for  the  most  part  to  have  been  brought  from 
abroad,  and  these  imperial  coloni  may  be  reckoned  in  a 
certain  measure  as  belonging  to  the  Italian  immigration. 
We  have  formerly  remarked  (p.  333)  that  the  Berbers 
formed  a  considerable  portion  of  the  popula- 
the  Berber  com-  tion  of  Numidia  and  Mauretania  through  the 
mumties.  wholc  time  of  the  Roman  rule.  But  as  to 
their  internal  organisation  hardly  more  can  be  ascertained 
than  the  emergence  of  the  clan  {gens)  ^  instead  of  the 

'  Frontinus  in  the  well-known  passage,  p.  53  Lachm. ,  respecting 
processes  between  the  urban  communities  and  private  persons,  or, 
as  it  may  be,  the  emperor,  appears  not  to  presuppose  state-districts 
de  iure  independent  and  of  a  similar  nature  with  urban  territories — 
such  as  are  incompatible  with  Roman  law — but  a  de  facto  refractory 
attitude  of  the  great  landowner  towards  the  community  which 
makes  him  liable,  e.g.  for  the  furnishing  of  recruits  or  compulsory 
services,  basing  itself  on  the  allegation  that  the  piece  of  land  made 
liable  is  not  within  the  bounds  of  the  community  requiring  the  ser- 
vice. 

^  The  technical  designation  gens  comes  into  prominence  particu- 
larly in  the  fixed  title  of  the  praefectus  gentis  Musulamiorum,  etc.  ; 
but,  as  this  is  the  lowest  category  of  the  independent  common- 
wealth, the  word  is  usually  avoided  in  dedications  (comp.  G.  I.  L. 
viii.  p.  1100)  and  cimtas  put  instead,  a  designation,  which,  like  the 
oppidum  of  Pliny  foreign  to  the  technical  language  (p.  361,  note), 
includes  in  it  all  communities  of  non-Italian  or  Greek  organisation. 


CHAr.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


365 


urban  organisation  under  duoviri  or  sufetes.  The  societies 
of  the  natives  were  not,  like  those  of  North  Italy,  assigned 
as  subjects  to  individual  urban  communities,  but  were 
placed  like  the  towns  immediately  under  the  governors, 
doubtless  also,  where  it  seemed  necessary,  under  a  Roman 
officer  specially  placed  over  them  (praefectus  gentis j,  and 
further  under  authorities  of  their  own  ^ — the  "  headman  " 

The  nature  of  the  gens  is  described  by  the  paraphrase  {G.  I.  L. 
viii.  68)  alternating  with  cidtas  Gurzensis  (ib.  69):  senatus populusque 
cicitatium  stipendiarioru7n  pago  Gurzenses,  that  is,  the  "elders  and 
community  of  the  clans  of  tributary  people  in  the  village  of  Gurza." 

'When  the  designation  princeps  (0.  I.  L.  viii.  p.  1102)  is  not 
merely  enunciative  but  an  official  title,  it  appears  throughout  in 
communities  which  are  neither  themselves  urban  communities  nor 
parts  of  such,  and  with  special  frequency  in  the  case  of  the  gentes. 
We  may  compare  the  "eleven  first"  (comp.  Epli.  epigr.  v.  n.  302, 
521,  533)  with  the  seniores  to  be  met  with  here  and  there.  An  evi- 
dence in  support  of  both  positions  is  given  in  the  inscription  G.  L 
L.  viii.  7041  :  Florus  Labaeonisf.  princeps  et  undecimprimus  gentis 
Saboidum.  Recently  at  Bu  Jelida,  a  little  westward  of  the  great 
road  between  Carthage  and  Theveste,  in  a  valley  of  the  Jebel  Rihan, 
and  so  in  a  quite  civilised  region,  there  have  been  found  the  re- 
mains of  a  Berber  village,  which  calls  itself  on  a  monument  of  the 
time  of  Pius  (still  unprinted) (/e^^s  Baccliuiana^  and  is  under  "eleven 
elders";  the  names  of  gods  {Saturno  AcJiaiaei  [?]  Aug[usto],  like 
the  names  of  men  (Gandidus  Braisamonis fil.),  are  half  local,  half 
Latin.  In  Calama  the  dating  after  the  two  sufetes  and  the  prin- 
ceps (G.  I.  L.  viii.  5306,  comp.  5369)  is  remarkable  ;  it  appears  that 
this  probably  Libyan  community  was  first  under  a  chief,  and  then 
obtained  sufete.s  without  the  chief  being  dropped.  It  may  readily 
be  understood  that  our  monuments  do  not  give  much  information 
upon  the  gentes  and  their  organisation  ;  in  this  field  doubtless  little 
was  written  on  stone.  Even  the  Libyan  inscriptions  belong,  at  least 
as  regards  the  majority,  to  towns  in  part  or  wholly  inhabited  by 
Berbers;  the  bilingual  inscriptions  found  at  Tenelium  {G.  I.  L. 
viii.  p.  514),  in  Numidia  westward  from  Bona  in  the  Sheffia  plain, 
the  same  place  that  has  furnished  till  now  most  of  the  Berber  stone 
inscriptions,  show  indeed  in  their  Latin  part  Libyan  names,  e.g. 
Gliinidial  Misicir  f .  and  JS'addJisen  Gotuzanis  f . ,  both  from  the  clan 
(tribu)  of  the  Misiciri  or  Misictri ;  but  one  of  these  people,  who  has 
served  in  the  Roman  army  and  has  acquired  the  Roman  franchise, 
names  himself  in  the  Latin  text  c^^)^to^6  swc*  Tcnelio  flamen  per- 
2)etuus^  according  to  which  this  place  seems  to  have  been  organised 


366 


The  African  Provinces.        [Book  VIII. 


(princeps),  who  in  later  times  bore  possibly  the  title  of 
king,  and  the  "eleven  first."  Presumably  this  arrange- 
ment was  monarchical  in  contrast  to  the  collegiate  one  of 
the  Phoenician  as  of  the  Latin  community,  and  there  stood 
alongside  of  the  tribal  chief  a  limited  number  of  elders 
instead  of  the  numerous  senate  of  decuriones  of  the  towns. 
The  communities  of  natives  in  Roman  Africa  seem  to  have 
attained  afterwards  to  Italian  organisation  only  by  way  of 
exception ;  the  African  towns  with  Italian  rights,  which 
did  not  originate  from  immigration,  had  doubtless  for  the 
most  part  Phoenician  civic  rights  previously.  Exceptions 
occur  chiefly  in  the  case  of  transplanted  tribes,  as  indeed 
the  considerable  town  Thubursicum  originated  from  such 
a  forced  settlement  of  Numidians.  The  Berber  commu- 
nities possessed  especially  the  mountains  and  the  steppes  ; 
they  obeyed  the  foreigners,  without  either  the  masters  or 
the  subjects  feeling  any  desire  to  come  to  terms  with  one 
another  ;  and,  when  other  foreigners  invaded  the  land, 
their  position  in  presence  of  the  Vandals,  the  Byzantines, 
the  Arabs,  the  French,  remained  almost  on  the  old  foot- 
ing. 

In  the  economy  of  the  soil  the  eastern  half  of  Africa 
vies  with  Egypt.  Certainly  the  soil  is  un- 
HusDandry.  equal,  and  rocks  and  steppes  occupy  not  only 
the  greater  portion  of  the  western  half,  but  also  consider- 
able tracts  in  the  eastern  ;  here  too  there  were  various 
inaccessible  mountain-regions,  which  yielded  but  slowly 
or  not  at  all  to  civilisation  ;  particularly  on  the  rocky 
ridges  along  the  coast  the  Roman  rule  left  few  or  no 
traces.  Even  the  Byzacene,  the  south-eastmost  part  of 
the  proconsular  province,  is  only  designated  as  a  specially 
productive  region  by  an  erroneous  generalisation  of  what 
holds  good  as  to  individual  coast  districts  and  oases  ; 
from  Sufetula  (Sbitla)  westward  the  land  is  waterless  and 

like  a  town.  If,  therefore,  success  should  ever  attend  the  attempt 
to  read  and  decipher  the  Berber  inscriptions  with  certainty,  they 
would  hardly  give  us  sufficient  information  as  to  the  internal  organ- 
isation of  the  Berber  tribes. 


CHAr,  xiiL]      The  African  Provinces. 


367 


rocky  ;  in  the  fifth  century  a.d.  Byzacene  was  reckoned  to 
have  about  a  half  less  per  cent,  of  land  capable  of  culture 
than  the  other  African  provinces.  But  the  northern  and 
north-western  portion  of  the  proconsular  province,  above 
all  the  valley  of  the  largest  river  in  north  Africa,  the 
Bagradas  (Mejerda),  and  not  less  a  considerable  part  of 
Numidia,  yield  abundant  grain  crops,  almost  like  the  val- 
ley of  the  Nile.  In  the  favoured  districts  the  country 
towns,  very  frequent,  as  their  ruins  show,  lay  so  near  to 
each  other  that  the  population  here  cannot  have  been 
much  less  dense  than  in  the  land  of  the  Nile,  and  accord- 
ing to  all  traces  it  prosecuted  especially  husbandry.  The 
mighty  armed  masses,  with  which  after  the  defeat  at 
Pharsalus  the  republicans  in  Africa  took  up  the  struggle 
against  Caesar,  were  formed  of  these  peasants,  so  that  in 
the  year  of  war  the  fields  lay  untilled.  Since  Italy  used 
more  corn  than  it  .produced,  it  was  primarily  dependent, 
in  addition  to  the  Italian  islands,  on  the  almost  equally 
near  Africa  ;  and  after  it  became  subject  to  the  Komans, 
its  corn  went  thither  not  merely  by  way  of  commerce, 
but  above  all  as  tribute.  Already  in  Cicero's  time  the 
capital  of  the  empire  doubtless  subsisted  for  the  most 
part  on  African  corn  ;  through  the  admission  of  Numidia 
under  Caesar's  dictatorship  the  corn  thenceforth  coming 
in  as  tribute  increased  according  to  the  estimate  about 
1,200,000  Roman  bushels  (525,000)  hectolitres  annually. 
After  the  Egyptian  corn  supplies  were  instituted  under 
Augustus,  for  the  third  part  of  the  corn  used  in  Rome 
North  Africa  was  reckoned  upon,  and  Egypt  for  a  like 
amount ;  while  the  desolated  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Baetica, 
along  with  Italy's  own  production,  covered  the  rest  of 
the  need.  In  what  measure  the  Italy  of  the  imperial 
period  was  dependent  for  its  subsistence  on  Africa  is 
shown  by  the  measures  taken  during  the  wars  between 
Vitellius  and  Vespasian  and  between  Severus  and  Pes- 
cennius  ;  Vespasian  thought  that  he  had  conquered  Italy 
when  he  occupied  Egypt  and  Africa  ;  Severus  sent  a  strong 
army  to  Africa  to  hinder  Pescennius  from  occupying  it. 


* 


368  The  Af  rican  Provinces.        [Book  Vlll. 

Oil,  too,  and  wine  had  already  held  a  prominent  place 
in  the  old  Carthaginian  husbandry,  and  on 
Little-Leptis  (near  Susa),  for  example,  an  an- 
nual payment  of  3,000,000  pounds  of  oil  (nearly  10,000 
hectolitres)  could  be  imposed  by  Caesar  for  the  Koman 
baths,  as  indeed  Susa  still  at  the  present  day  exports 
40,000  hectolitres  of  oil.  Accordingly  the  historian  of  the 
Jugurthan  war  terms  Africa  rich  in  corn,  poor  in  oil  and 
wine,  and  even  in  Vespasian's  time  the  province  gave  in 
this  respect  only  a  moderate  yield.  It  was  only  when  the 
peace  with  the  empire  became  permanent — a  peace  which 
the  fruit-tree  needed  even  far  more  than  the  fruits  of  the 
field — that  the  culture  of  olives  extended  ;  in  the  fourth 
century  no  province  supplied  such  quantities  of  oil  as 
Africa,  and  the  African  oil  was  predominantly  employed 
for  the  baths  in  Rome.  In  quality,  doubtless,  it  was  al- 
ways inferior  to  that  of  Italy  and  Spai^,  not  because  nat- 
ure there  was  less  favourable,  but  because  the  preparation 
lacked  skill  and  care.  The  cultivation  of  the  vine  acquired 
no  prominent  importance  in  Africa  for  export.  On  the 
other  hand  the  breeding  of  horses  and  of  cattle  flourished, 
especially  in  Numidia  and  Mauretania. 

Manufactures  and  trade  never  had  the  same  importance 
in  the  African  provinces  as  in  the  East  and  in 
fnTcomme?ce.  Egypt.  The  Phoenicians  had  transplanted  the 
preparation  of  purple  from  their  native  coun- 
try to  these  coasts,  where  the  island  of  Gerba  (Jerba)  be- 
came the  African  Tyre,  and  was  inferior  only  to  the  lat- 
ter itself  in  quality.  This  manufacture  flourished  through 
the  whole  imperial  period.  Among  the  few  deeds  which 
king  Juba  11.  has  to  show,  is  the  arrangement  for  obtain- 
ing purple  on  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  on  the 
adjacent  islands.'    Woollen  stuffs  of  inferior  quality  and 

1  That  the  Gaetulian  purple  is  to  be  referred  to  Juba  is  stated  by 
Pliny,  H.  N.  vi.  31,  201  :  paucas  {Mauretaniae  insulas)  co7istat  esse 
ex  adverso  Autololum  a  luha  repertas,  in  quibus  Gaetulicam  pur. 
puram  tinguere  instituerat ;  by  these  insulae  purpurariae  (ib.  203) 
can  only  be  meant  Madeira.    In  fact  the  oldest  mention  of  this 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


369 


leather  goods  were  manufactured  in  Mauretania,  appar- 
ently by  the  natives,  also  for  export. '  The  trade  in  slaves 
was  very  considerable.  The  products  of  the  interior  of 
the  country  naturally  passed  by  way  of  North  Africa  into 
general  commerce,  but  not  to  such  an  extent  as  by  way  of 
Egypt.  The  elephant,  it  is  true,  was  the  device  of  Mau- 
retania in  particular,  and  there,  where  it  has  now  for  long 
disappeared,  it  was  still  hunted  down  to  the  imperial  pe- 
riod ;  but  probably  only  small  quantities  came  thence  into 
commerce. 

The  prosperity  which  subsisted  in  the  part  of  Africa  at 
all  cultivated  is  clearly  attested  by  the  ruins 
Prosperity.  .^^  numerous  towns,  which,  in  spite  of  the 

narrow  bounds  of  their  domains,  everywhere  exhibit 
baths,  theatres,  triumphal  arches,  gorgeous  tombs,  and 
generally  buildings  of  luxury  of  all  kinds,  mostly  mediocre 
in  art,  often  excessive  in  magnificence.  Not  quite  in  the 
villas  of  the  superior  nobility,  as  in  the  Gallic  land,  but 
in  the  middle  class  of  the  farming  burgesses  must  the 
economic  strength  of  these  regions  have  lain.'^ 


purple  is  that  in  Horace,  Ep.  ii.  2,  181.  Proofs  are  wanting  as  to 
the  later  duration  of  this  manufacture,  and,  as  the  Roman  rule 
did  not  extend  to  these  islands,  it  is  not  probable,  although  from  the 
sagum  purpurium  of  the  tariff  of  Zarai  (C.  1.  L.  viii.  4508)  we  may 
infer  Mauretanian  manufactures  of  purple. 

^  The  tariff  of  Zarai  set  up  at  the  Numidian  customs-frontier 
towards  Mauretania  (C.  1.  L.  viii.  4508)  from  the  year  202  gives  a 
clear  picture  of  the  Mauretanian  exports.  Wine,  figs,  dates,  sponges, 
are  not  wanting  ;  but  slaves,  cattle  of  all  sorts,  woollen  stuffs  (vesUs 
Afra\  and  leather  wares  play  the  chief  part.  The  Description  of 
the  earth  also  from  the  time  of  Constantius  says,  c.  60,  that  Mau- 
retania vestem  et  mancipia  negotiatur. 

^  According  to  an  epitaph  found  in  Mactaris  in  the  Byzacene 
{Eph.  epigr.  v.  n.  279),  a  man  of  free  birth  there,  after  having  been 
actively  engaged  in  bringing  in  the  harvests  far  around  in  Africa, 
first  throughout  twelve  years  as  an  ordinary  reaper  and  then  for 
other  eleven  as  a  foreman,  purchased  for  himself  with  the  savings  of 
his  pay  a  town  and  a  country  house,  and  became  in  his  turn  a  mem- 
ber of  council  and  burgomaster.  His  poetical  epitaph  shows,  if  not 
pulture,  at  least  pretensions  to  it.  A  development  of  life  of  this 
Vol.  II.— 24 


370 


The  African  Provinces.        [Book  VIII. 


The  frequency  of  intercourse,  so  far  as  we  may  judge 
of  it  from  our  knowledge  of  the  network  of 
roads,  must  within  the  civihsed  territory  have 
corresponded  to  the  density  of  the  population.  During 
the  first  century  the  imperial  roads  originated,  which  con- 
nected the  headquarters  at  that  time,  Theveste,  partly 
with  the  coast  of  the  Lesser  Syrtis — a  step,  having  close 
relation  to  the  formerly  narrated  pacification  of  the  dis- 
trict between  the  Aures  and  the  sea — partly  with  the 
great  cities  of  the  north  coast.  Hippo  regius  (Bona)  and 
Carthage.  From  the  second  century  onward  we  find  all 
the  larger  towns  and  several  smaller  active  in  providing 
the  necessary  communications  within  their  territory  ;  this, 
however,  doubtless  holds  true  of  most  of  the  imperial  lands, 
and  only  comes  into  clearer  prominence  in  Africa,  because 
this  opportunity  was  made  use  of  more  diligently  here 
than  elsewhere  to  do  homage  to  the  reigning  emperor. 
As  to  the  road-system  of  the  districts,  which  though 
Koman  were  yet  not  Komanised,  and  as  to  the  routes 
which  were  the  medium  of  the  important  traffic  through 
the  desert,  we  have  no  general  information. 

But  probably  a  momentous  revolution  occurred  in  the 
desert-traffic  during  that  time  by  the  intro- 
ofcameit''*''  ductiou  of  the  camel.  In  older  times  it  meets 
us,  as  is  well  known,  only  in  Asia  as  far  as 
Arabia,  while  Egypt  and  all  Africa  knew  simply  the  horse. 
During  the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era  the  countries 
effected  an  exchange,  and,  like  the  Arabian  horse,  the 
Libyan  camel,  we  may  say,  made  its  appearance  in  history. 
Mention  of  the  latter  first  occurs  in  the  history  of  the  war 
waged  by  the  dictator  Caesar  in  Africa  ;  when  here  among 
the  booty  by  the  side  of  captive  officers  twenty-two  camels 
of  king  Juba  are  adduced,  such  a  possession  must  at  that 
time  have  been  of  an  extraordinary  nature  in  Africa.  In 
the  fourth  century  the  Koman  generals  demand  from  the 

sort  was  in  the  Roman  imperial  period  doubtless  not  so  rare  as  it 
at  first  may  seem,  but  probably  occurred  in  Africa  more  frequently 
than  elsewhere. 


CHAr.  XIII.]       Xhe  African  Provinces. 


3Y1 


towns  of  Tripolis  thousands  of  camels  for  the  transport  of 
water  and  of  provisions  before  they  enter  upon  the  march 
into  the  desert.  This  gives  a  gHmpse  of  the  revolution 
that  had  taken  place  during  the  interval  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  intercourse  between  the  north  and  the  south 
of  Africa  ;  whether  it  originated  from  Egypt  or  from  Cy- 
rene  and  Tripolis  we  cannot  tell,  but  it  redounded  to  the 
advantage  of  the  whole  north  of  this  continent. 

Thus  North  Africa  was  a  valuable  possession  for  the 
finances  of  the  empire.    "Whether  the  Roman 

Character  and  ,,  .       t  ,     ,  i  ii 

culture  of  the  uatiou  generally  gamed  or  lost  more  by  the 
people.  assimilation  of  North  Africa,  is  less  ascer- 

tained. The  dislike  which  the  Italian  felt  from  of  old  to- 
wards the  African  did  not  change  after  Carthage  had 
become  a  Roman  great  city,  and  all  Africa  spoke  Latin  ; 
if  Severus  Antoninus  combined  in  himself  the  vices  of 
three  nations,  his  savage  cruelty  was  traced  to  his  African 
father,  and  the  ship  captain  of  the  fourth  century,  who 
thought  that  "Africa  was  a  fine  countrj^  but  the  Africans 
were  not  worthy  of  it,  for  they  were  cunning  and  faithless, 
and  there  might  be  some  good  people  among  them,  but 
not  many,"  was  at  least  not  thinking  of  the  bad  Hannibal, 
but  was  speaking  out  the  feeling  of  the  great  public  at 
the  time.  So  far  as  the  influence  of  African  elements  may 
be  recognised  in  the  Roman  literature  of  the  imperial 
period,  we  meet  with  specially  unpleasant  leaves  in  a  book 
generally  far  from  pleasant.  The  new  life,  which  bloomed 
for  the  Romans  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  nations  extirpated 
by  them,  was  nowhere  full  and  fresh  and  beautiful ;  even 
the  two  creations  of  Caesar,  the  Celtic  land  and  North 
Africa — for  Latin  Africa  was  not  much  less  his  work  than 
Latin  Gaul — remained  structures  of  ruins.  But  the  toga 
suited,  at  any  rate,  the  new-Roman  of  the  Rhone  and 
the  Garonne  better  than  the  "  Seminumidians  and  Semi- 
gaetulians."  Doubtless  Carthage  remained  in  the  num- 
bers of  its  population  and  in  wealth  not  far  behind 
Alexandria,  and  was  indisputably  the  second  city  of  the 
Latin  half  of  the  empire,  next  to  Rome  the  most  lively, 


372 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


perhaps  also  tlie  most  corrupt,  city  of  the  West,  and  the 
most  important  centre  of  Latin  culture  and  literature. 
Augustine  depicts  with  lively  colours  how  many  an  honest 
youth  from  the  province  went  to  wreck  there  amid  the 
dissolute  doings  of  the  circus,  and  how  powerful  was  the 
impression  produced  on  him — when,  a  student  of  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  he  came  from  Madaura  to  Carthage — 
by  the  theatre  with  its  love-pieces  and  with  its  tragedy. 
There  was  no  lack  in  the  African  of  diligence  and  talent ; 
on  the  contrary,  perhaps  more  value  was  set  upon  the 
Latin  and  along  with  it  the  Greek  instruction,  and  on  its 
aim  of  general  culture,  in  Africa  than  anywhere  else  in  the 
empire,  and  the  school-system  was  highly  developed.  The 
philosopher  Appuleius  under  Pius,  the  celebrated  Chris- 
tian author  Augustine,  both  descended  from  good  bur- 
gess-families— the  former  from  Madaura,  the  latter  from 
the  neighbouring  smaller  place  Thagaste — received  their 
first  training  in  the  schools  of  their  native  towns  ;  then 
Appuleius  studied  in  Carthage,  and  finished  his  training  in 
Athens  and  Kome  ;  Augustine  went  from  Thagaste  first 
to  Madaura,  then  likewise  to  Carthage  ;  in  this  way  the 
training  of  youth  was  completed  in  the  better  houses 
throughout.  Juvenal  advises  the  professor  of  rhetoric 
who  would  earn  money  to  go  to  Gaul  or,  still  better,  to 
Africa,  "  the  nurse  of  advocates."  At  a  nobleman's  seat 
in  the  territory  of  Cirta  there  has  recently  been  brought 
to  light  a  private  bath  of  the  later  imperial  period  equipped 
with  princely  magnificence,  the  mosaic  pavement  of  which 
depicts  how  matters  went  on  once  at  the  castle  ;  the  pal- 
aces, the  extensive  hunting-park  with  the  hounds  and 
stags,  the  stables  with  the  noble  race-horses,  occupy  no 
doubt  most  of  the  space,  but  there  is  not  wanting  also 
the  "scholar's  corner"  [filosofi  locus),  and  beside  it  the 
noble  lady  sitting  under  the  palms. 

But  the  black  spot  of  the  African  literary  character  is 
lust  its  scholasticism.    It  does  not  begin  till 

Scholasticism.     ^  /.ttt-  t     i>  t\- 

late  ;  before  the  time  oi  Hadrian  and  of  rms 
the  Latin  literary  world  exhibits  no  African  name  of 


Chap.  XIII. ]       The  Africaii  Provinces. 


373 


repute,  and  subsequently  the  Africans  of  note  were 
thi'oughout,  in  the  first  instance,  schoolmasters,  and  came 
as  such  to  be  authors.  Under  those  emperors  the  most 
celebrated  teachers  and  scholars  of  the  capital  were  na- 
tive Africans,  the  rhetor  Marcus  Cornelius  Fronto  fi'om 
Cirta,  instructor  of  the  j)rinces  at  the  court  of  Pius,  and 
the  philologue  Gaius  Sulpicius  Apollinaris  from  Carthage. 
For  that  reason  there  prevailed  in  these  circles  sometimes 
the  foolish  purism  that  forced  back  the  Latin  into  the  old- 
fashioned  paths  of  Ennius  and  of  Cato,  whereby  Fronto 
and  Apollinaris  made  theii'  repute,  sometimes  an  utter 
oblivion  of  the  earnest  austerity  innate  in  Latin,  and  a 
frivolity  producing  a  worse  imitation  of  bad  Greek  models, 
such  as  reaches  its  culmination  in  the — in  its  time  much 
admired — "  Ass-romance  "  of  that  philosopher  of  Madaura. 
The  language  swarmed  partly  with  scholastic  reminis- 
cences, partly  with  unclassical  or  newly  coined  words  and 
phrases.  Just  as  in  the  emperor  Severus,  an  African  of 
good  family  and  himself  a  scholar  and  author,  his  tone  of 
speech  always  betrayed  the  African,  so  the  style  of  these 
Afi'icans,  even  those  who  were  clever  and  from  the  first 
trained  in  Latin,  like  the  Carthaginian  TertuUian,  has 
regularly  something  strange  and  incongruous,  with  its  dif- 
fuseness  of  petty  detail,  its  minced  sentences,  its  witty 
and  fantastic  conceits.  There  is  a  lack  of  both  the  grace- 
ful charm  of  the  Greek  and  of  the  dignity  of  the  Roman. 
Significantly  we  do  not  meet  in  the  whole  field  of  Afri- 
cano -Latin  authorship  a  single  poet  who  deseiwes  to  be  so 
much  as  named. 

It  was  not  till  the  Christian  period  that  it  became  other- 
wise. In  the  development  of  Chi'istianitv 
S!ie  ?n  iJifca'.  ^frica  plays  the  very  first  part ;  if  it  arose  in 
Syria,  it  was  in  and  through  Africa  that  it  be- 
came the  rehgion  for  the  world.  As  the  translation  of  the 
sacred  books  from  the  Hebrew  language  into  the  Greek, 
and  that  into  the  popular  language  of  the  most  consider- 
able Jewish  community  out  of  Judaea,  gave  to  Judaism  its 
position  in  the  world,  so  in  a  similai*  way  for  the  transfer- 


374 


The  African  Provinces. 


[Book  VIII. 


ence  of  Christianity  from  the  serving  East  to  the  ruling 
West  the  translation  of  its  confessional  writings  into  the 
language  of  the  West  became  of  decisive  importance  ;  and 
this  all  the  more,  inasmuch  as  these  books  were  trans- 
lated, not  into  the  language  of  the  cultivated  circles  of  the 
West,  which  early  disappeared  from  common  life  and  in 
the  imperial  age  was  everywhere  a  matter  of  scholastic  at- 
tainment, but  into  the  decomposed  Latin  already  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  the  structure  of  the  Eomance  languages — ■ 
the  Latin  of  common  intercourse  at  that  time  familiar  to 
the  great  masses.  If  Christianity  was  by  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  church-state  released  from  its  Jewish  basis 
(p.  249),  it  became  the  religion  of  the  world  by  the  fact, 
that  in  the  great  world-empire  it  began  to  speak  the 
universally  current  imperial  language  ;  and  those  name- 
less men,  who  since  the  second  century  Latinised  the 
Christian  writings,  performed  for  this  epoch  just  such  a 
service,  as  at  the  present  day,  in  the  heightened  measure 
required  by  the  enlarged  horizon  of  the  nations,  is  carried 
out  in  the  footsteps  of  Luther  by  the  Bible  Societies.  And 
these  men  were  in  part  Italians,  but  above  all  Africans.' 

1  How  far  our  Latin  texts  of  tlie  Bible  are  to  be  referred  to  several 
translations  originally  different,  or  whether,  as  Lachmann  assumed, 
the  different  recensions  have  proceeded  from  one  and  the  same 
translation  as  a  basis  by  means  of  manifold  revision  with  the  aid  of 
the  originals,  are  questions  which  can  scarcely  be  definitely  decided 
— for  the  present  at  least — in  favour  of  either  one  or  the  other  view. 
But  that  both  Italians  and  Africans  took  part  in  this  work — whether 
of  translation  or  of  correction — is  proved  by  the  famous  words  of 
Augustine,  de  doctr.  Christ,  ii.  15,  22,  in  ipsis  autem  interpretatioin- 
bus  Itala  ceteris  praeferatur,  nam  est  verhorum  tenador  cum  perspi- 
cuitate  sententiae.,  over  which  great  authorities  have  been  perplexed 
but  certainly  without  reason.  Bentley's  proposal,  approved  afresh 
of  late  (by  Corssen,  Jalirb.  fur  protestant.  Theol.  vii.  p.  507  f . ),  to 
change  Itala  into  ilia  and  nam  into  quae.,  is  inadmissible  alike  pliilo  ■ 
logically  and  in  substance.  For  the  twofold  change  is  destitute  of 
all  external  probability,  and  besides  na^n  is  protected  by  the  copyist 
Isidorus,  Etym.,  vi.  4,  2.  The  further  objection  that  linguistic 
usage  would  require  Italica,  is  not  borne  out  {e.g.  Sidonius  and  lor  - 
danes  as  well  as  the  inscriptions  of  latei  times,  G.  I.  L.  x.  p.  1146, 


Chap.  XIII.]       The  African  Provinces. 


3Y5 


In  Africa  to  all  appearance  the  knowledge  of  Greek,  which 
is  able  to  dispense  with  translations,  was  far  more  seldom 
to  be  met  with  than  at  least  in  Rome  ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Oriental  element,  that  preponderated  particular- 
ly in  the  early  stages  of  Christianity,  here  found  a  readier 
reception  than  in  the  other  Latin-speaking  lands  of  the 
West.  Even  as  regards  the  polemic  literature  called  es- 
pecially into  existence  by  the  new  faith,  since  the  Ro- 
man church  at  this  epoch  belonged  to  the  Greek  circle 

write  Italus  by  turns  with  Italicus),  and  the  designation  of  a  singlo 
translation  as  the  most  trustworthy  on  the  whole  is  quite  consistent 
with  the  advice  to  consult  as  many  as  possible ;  whereas  by  the  change 
proposed  an  intelligent  remark  is  converted  into  a  meaningless  com- 
monplace. It  is  true  that  the  Christian  Church  in  Rome  in  the  first 
three  centuries  made  use  throughout  of  the  Greek  language,  and  that 
we  may  not  seek  there  for  the  Itali  who  took  part  in  the  Latin  Bible. 
But  that  in  Italy  outside  of  Rome,  especially  in  Upper  Italy,  the  know- 
ledge of  Greek  was  not  much  more  diffused  than  in  Africa,  is  most 
clearly  shown  by  the  names  of  freedmen  ;  and  it  is  just  to  the  non- 
Roman  Italy  that  the  designation  used  by  Augustine  points;  while  we 
may  perhaps  also  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  Augustine  was  gained  for 
Christianity  by  Ambrosius  in  Milan.  The  attempt  to  identify  the 
traces  of  the  recension  called  by  Augustine  Itala  in  such  remains  as 
have  survived  of  Bible  translations  before  Jerome's,  will  at  all 
events  hardly  ever  be  successful ;  but  still  less  will  it  admit  of  being 
proved  that  Africans  only  worked  at  the  pre-Hieronymian  Latin 
Bible  texts.  That  they  originated  largely,  perhaps  for  the  most  part, 
in  Africa  has  certainly  great  probability.  The  contrast  to  the  one 
Itala  can  only  in  reason  have  been  several  Afrae ;  and  the  vulgar 
Latin,  in  which  these  texts  are  all  of  them  written,  is  in  full  agree- 
ment with  the  vulgar  Latin,  as  it  was  demonstrably  spoken  in  Africa. 
At  the  same  time  we  must  doubtless  not  overlook  the  fact  that  we 
know  the  vulgar  Latin  in  general  principally  from  African  sources, 
and  that  the  proof  of  the  restriction  of  any  individual  linguistic 
phenomenon  to  Africa  is  as  necessary  as  it  is  for  the  most  part  un- 
adduced.  There  existed  side  by  side  as  well  vulgarisms  in  general 
use  as  African  provincialisms  (comp.  EipJi.  epigr.  iv.  p.  520,  as  to  the 
cognomina  in  -osm) ;  but  that  forms  like  glorijicare,  nudijicare,  justi- 
ficare,  belong  to  the  second  category,  is  by  no  means  proved  from  the 
fact  that  we  first  meet  with  them  in  Africa,  since  analogous  docu- 
ments to  those  which  we  possess,  e.g.  for  Carthage  in  the  case  of  Ter-> 
tuUian,  are  wanting  to  us  as  regards  Capua  and  Milan. 


376 


The  African  Promnces. 


[Book  VIII. 


(p.  24  f.),  Africa  took  the  lead  in  the  Latin  tongue.  The 
whole  Christian  authorship  down  to  the  end  of  this  period 
is,  so  far  as  it  is  Latin,  African ;  TertuUian  and  Cyprian 
were  from  Carthage,  Arnobius  from  Sicca,  Lactantius,  and 
probably  in  like  manner  Minucius  Felix,  were,  in  spite  of 
their  classic  Latin,  Africans,  and  not  less  the  already  men- 
tioned somewhat  later  Augustine.  In  Africa  the  growing 
church  found  its  most  zealous  confessors  and  its  most 
gifted  defenders.  For  the  literary  conflict  of  the  faith 
Africa  furnished  by  far  the  most  and  the  ablest  combat- 
ants, whose  special  characteristics,  now  in  eloquent  discus- 
sion, now  in  witty  ridicule  of  fables,  now  in  vehement  in- 
dignation, found  a  true  and  mighty  field  for  their  display 
in  the  onslaught  on  the  old  gods.  A  mind — intoxicated 
first  by  the  whirl  of  a  dissolute  life,  and  then  by  the  fiery 
enthusiasm  of  faith — such  as  utters  itself  in  the  Confes- 
sions of  Augustine,  has  no  parallel  elsewhere  in  antiquity. 


INDEX. 


Abdagaeses,  ii.  47. 

Abgarus,  of  Edessa,  ii.  49  (under 

Claudius),  72  (under  Trajan),  83 

(under  Severus). 
Abrinca,  rivulet,  i.  129  n. 
Achaeans,  diet,  i.  286. 
Achaemenids,  dynasty,  ii.  2,  3,  10  ; 

seven  houses,''  6. 
Achaia,  province,  i.  277  f .  n.  ;  under 

the  emperors,  281. 
Acraephia,   inscription,  i.   387  w., 

296  n. 
Actiads,  i.  321  n. 
Actian  games,  i.  321  n. 
Adane,  ii.  313  f.  ;    destroyed,  319 

f .  n. 

Adiabene,  ii.  73,  84  /i.,  94. 
AdiabenicnSy  ii.  84  n. 
Adminius,  i.  189. 
Adrianopolis,  i.  333. 
Adulis,  ii.  304,  305,  306,  323. 
Aedemon,  ii.  341. 
Aeizanas,  ii.  308  n. 
Aelana,  ii.  313. 

Aemilianus,  Marcus  Aemilius,  i. 
261. 

Aemilianus,  Egyptian  tyrant,  ii. 
273  n. 

Aethiopia  and  Aethiopians,  ii.  298- 

302  ;  traffic,  302. 
Afer,  ii.  331  n. 

Africa,  North,  ii.  330 ;  Berber  stock, 
330-333  ;  Phoenician  immigration, 
333  ;  government  of  republic,  333 
f.  ;  Caesar's  policy,  384  f.  ;  extent 
of  Roman  rule,  335  f .  ;  no  strict 
frontier,  336 ;  province  of,  337 ; 
two  Mauretanian  kingdoms,  338 
f . ;  physical  conformation,  342  ; 
Africano-Numidian  territory,  344 
f.  ;  war  against  Tacfarinas  and 
later  conflicts,  345-348;  Roman 
civilisation  in  Mauretania,  349  f .  ; 
continuance  of  Berber  language, 
354  f.  ;  of  Phoenician,  355  f.  ; 
coinage,  356  n.  ;  Latin  language. 


358  ;  Phoenician  urban  organisa- 
tion, 358  ;  transformed  into  Ital- 
ian, 361 ;  number  of  towns,  361  n. ; 
Italian  colonists,  361 ;  large  landed 
estates,  363  f.  ;  husbandry,  366; 
corn  supplied  to  Rome,  367 ;  oil 
and  wine,  367  f.  ;  manufactures 
and  commerce,  368  f .  ;  prosperity, 
369 ;  roads,  369  f.  ;  introduction 
of  camels,  370  ;  character  and  cult- 
ure of  people,  371  f.  ;  scholasti- 
cism, 373  ;  Christian  literature, 
373-376;  Latin  Scriptures,  374 
f.  n. 

Agonistic  institutes,  i.  313  n, 
Agonothesia,  i.  375      377  n. 
Agricola,  Gnaeus  Julius,  i.  197-200, 
210. 

Agrippa;  see  Herod  Agrippa. 

Agrippa,  M.  Vipsanius,  in  command 
on  the  Danube,  i.  25 ;  transfer- 
ence of  Ubii,  29 ;  combats  in 
Gaul,  87. 

Agrippa,  Marcus  Fonteius,  i.  237. 

Agrippina  (Cologne),  i.  130. 

Ahenobarbus,  Lucius  Domitius,  ex- 
pedition to  Elbe,  i.  34 ;  dyke  be- 
tween Ems  and  Lower  Rhine,  39. 

Ahuramazda,  ii.  11  f.,  90. 

Alamanni,  war  with,  i.  175  f . ,  177 ; 
raids,  180  f . 

Alani,  ii.  65  n.,  68,  78,  79  n. 

Albani,  ii.  77  f . 

Alexander  the  Great,  basing  his  em- 
pire on  towns,  not  on  tribes,  ii. 
131. 

Alexander  II,  of  Egypt,  testament, 
ii,  352. 

Alexander,  son  of  Cleopatra,  ii.  26, 
27,  28  ;  installed  king  of  Armenia, 
36. 

Alexander  Severus,  purchases  peace 
in  Germany,  i.  176 ;  murder,  176  ; 
ii.  97 ;  character,  96  f .  ;  war  with 
Ardashir,  97  n.  :  nicknamed 
"chief  Rabbi,"  286. 


378 


Index. 


Alexander  of  Abonoteichos,  i.  379. 

Alexander,  Tiberius  Julius,  ii.  183, 
22;;5,  2G3  n.,  267  n. 

Alexandria,  in  Egypt,  under  the 
Palmyrenes,  ii.  117,  271  ;  number 
and  position  of  Jews,  179  218 
n.,  290;  Jew-hunt,  208,  209  n.\ 
deputations  to  Gains,  210  f.  ; 
"  Greek  city,"  255  f.  ;  chief  priest 
of,  258 ;  exemptions  and  privi- 
leges, 261  n.  ;  libraries,  267,  294 ; 
chief  officials,  267  n.  ;  distribution 
of  corn,  273  n.  ;  Italian  settlement 
in,  280  ;  mariners'  guilds,  279  n. ; 
comparison  with  Antioch,  285 ; 
Alexandrian  Fronde,  285 ;  nick- 
names, 286;  tumults  frequent  and 
serious,  286  n.,  287;  worship,  288 
f.,  289  n.  ;  old  cultus  retaining  its 
hold,  290 ;  learned  world,  291  f .  ; 
physicians  and  quacks,  291 ; 
Bcholar-life,  292  f.  ;  Museum,  295 
f.,  296;  labours 'of  erudition,  295 
f.  ;  "jointure  "  of  Greek  science, 
296  ;  camp  in  suburb  of  Nicopolis, 
297. 

Alexandria,  in  Troas,  i.  353  f . 

Alexandropolis,  ii.  16. 

Aliso,  fortress,  i.  38  f.,  41  ;  defence 
by  Caedicius,  53. 

Allegorical  interpretation,  Jewish, 
ii.  183  f. 

AUobroges,  i.  94,  9ihn.,  99. 

Alps,  subjugation,  i.  18 ;  military 
districts,  20  f . ;  roads  and  colo- 
nies, 21. 

Amasia,  i.  359. 

Amazigh,  ii.  330. 

Ambubaia,  ii.  145. 

Amida,  ii.  125. 

Amisus,  i.  359  f. 

Amphictiony  remodelled  by  Augus- 
tus, i.  275  w.,  276  n. 

Amsivarii,  i.  134. 

Amyntas,  i.  362  n.  ;  ii.  26,  39. 

Ancyra,  i.  369       370  n. 

Anthedon,  ii.  228. 

Antigonea,  ii.  139  n. 

Antigonus,  son  of  Hyrcanus,  ii. 
190-193. 

Antinoopolis,  ii.  257,  258  w.,  323  n. 

Antioch,  earthquake  at,  ii.  73 ;  capt- 
ure by  the  Persians  (260),  109, 145, 
and  by  Aurelian,  119  ;  creation  of 
monarchic  policy,  138 ;  capital  of 
Syria,  1 39  ;  Daphne,  140  ;  water 
supply,  and  lighted  streets,  141 
n.  ;  poverty  of  intellectual  inter- 
ests, 142  ;  paucity  of  inscriptions, 
144  ;  exhibitions  and  games,  144  ; 
races,  144  n. ;  immorality,  145 ; 


dissolute  cultuB,  146 ;  fondness 
for  ridicule,  146  f .  ;  support  of 
pretenders,  146  ;  reception  of,  and 
capture  by  Nushirvan,  147  ;  Jew- 
hunt  at,  238. 

Antioch  in  Pisidia,  i.  364  f. 

Antiochus  of  Commagene,  ii.  52, 
56  ;  tomb  of,  137  ;  his  buildings 
at  Athens,  i.  302. 

Antiochus  Epiphanes,  ii.  213. 

Antoninus  Pius  :  wall  from  Forth 
to  Clyde,  i.  203  n. ;  conflicts  in 
Britain  under,  205  n. 

Antonius,  Marcus,  ii.  23  f. ;  position 
in  38  B.C.,  25  f.  ;  his  army,  26; 
his  aims,  26  f.  ;  children  by  Cleo- 
patra, 28  n.  ;  preparations  for 
Parthian  war,  28  f .  ;  tempera- 
ment, 29  ;  Parthian  war,  30  f .  ;  re- 
sistance in  Atropatene,  31 ;  re- 
treat, 32,  33  ;  last  years  in  the 
East,  34 ;  dismisses  Ociavia  seek- 
ing reconciliation,  35 ;  punishes 
those  blamed  for  his  miscarriage, 
35  ;  attempt  on  Palmyra,  100 ; 
government  in  Alexandria,  252. 

Antipater  the  Idumaean,  ii.  189- 
192. 

Apamea  in  Phrygia,  i.  354. 

Apamea  in  Syria,  ii.  148, 154. 

Aper,  Marcus,  i.  122. 

Apharban,  ii.  124. 

Apion,  ii.  210,  211  n. 

Apocalypse  of  John  :  conception  of 
Roman  and  Parthian  empires  as 
standing  side  by  side,  ii.  1  n.  ; 
pseudo-ISTero  of,  69  f.  ;  directed 
against  the  worship  of  the  emper- 
ors, 213,  214-217  n. 

Apollinaris,  Gains  Sulpicius,  ii.  373. 

Apollo,  Actian,  i.  320  f. 

Apollonia,  i.  219  f.,  325. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana,  i.  379. 

Appian,  historian,  ii.  241,  242. 

Appuleius  of  Madaura,  ii.  372,  373. 

Appuleius,  Pseudo-,  Dialogue  of  the 
gods  quoted,  ii.  289  n. 

Apri,  i.  332. 

Apronius,  Lucius,  i.  135. 
Apulum,  i.  247. 
Aquae  Sextiae,  i.  85,  94. 
Aquileia,  i.  215  f.,  350,  252. 
Aquincum,  i.  247 ;  contra-Aquin- 

cum,  270.  — . 
Aquitania,  wars,  i.  70,  87 ;  coins,  86 

n.  ;  province,  74 ;    cantons  of, 

104. 

Arabia,  ii.  13 ;  Roman,  what  it  ins 
eluded,  156  f .  ;  institution  of 
province  by  Trajan,  166 ;  west 
coast  of,  309  f.  ;  Homerites,  311 


Index. 


379 


f.  ;  Felix,  309,  314 ;  policy  of  Au- 
gustus, 315  ;  expedition  of  Gallus, 
315  f .  ;  state  of  tlie  coast,  316  ii.  ; 
expedition  of  Gains,  318  w.  ;  in- 
jury to  its  commerce,  319. 

Arachosia,  ii.  14,  16. 

Aradus,  ii.  151  n. 

Aramaic  language,  ii.  178. 

Arbela,  ii.  4,  94. 

Archaism,  Greek,  i.  306  n. 

Archelaus  of  Cappadocia,  ii.  43. 

Archelaus,  son  of  Herod  the  Great, 
ii.  199  f. 

Architecture,  Syrian,  ii.  170  f. 

Ardashir  (Artaxares),  ii.  87  n.^  89 
n.,  90,  92,  95  w.,  98. 

Arelate,  i.  93,  96;  amphitheatre, 
115. 

Aretas,  ii.  161  w.,  162  f.  n.,  164  f. 
Argentoratum,  i.  129,  159. 
Ariarathes  of  Cappadocia,  ii.  35. 
Ariobarzanes,  ii.  40,  42. 
Aristobulus,  of  Chalcis,  ii.  52. 
Aristobulus,  prince  of  Judaea,  ii. 
190  f . 

Aristotle's  recommendation  to  Alex- 
ander, ii.  262. 

Armenia,  ii.  7,  20,  21,  36,  37,  38, 
43  f.  ;  Parthian  appanage  for  sec- 
ond son,  54,  63  ;  Roman  policy  as 
to,  53-56  ;  subdued  by  Corbulo,  57 
f.  ;  under  Parthian  prince  vassal 
to  Rome,  63  f.  ;  Roman  province 
under  Trajan,  72  f.,  75  f.  ;  be- 
comes again  vassal-state,  77  ;  Par- 
thian invasion,  79  f.,  86  w.,  96  f., 
99,  110,  113,  122  n.,  124,  124  ox., 
125  n. 

Arminius,  i.  47  ;  defeat  of  Varus,  51 
f.  ;  combats  with  Germanicus, 
59;  attack  on  Maroboduus,  66  f.; 
desertion  of  Inguiomerus,  66  ; 
civil  war  and  end,  68. 

Arnobius,  ii.  376. 

Arrianus,  Flavius,  ii.  21  n.,  79  n. 

Arsaces,  founder  of  Parthian  dy- 
nasty, ii.  3,  4,  7. 

Arsaces,  son  of  Artabanus,  ii.  45. 

Arsacids  and  their  rule,  ii.  3-14. 

Arsamosata,  ii.  60,  63. 

Arsinoe,  ii.  304,  317  f. 

Art,  constructive,  in  Gaul,  i.  124 ; 
in  Syria,  ii.  170  f. 

Artabanus  (III.),  king  of  the  Par- 
thians,  ii.  43-47. 

Artabanus  (IV.),  ii.  94  f. 

Artageira,  ii.  42, 

Artavazdes  of  Armenia,  ii.  30-35 

Artavazdes  of  Atropatene,  ii.  30,  31, 
34. 

Artaxaxes ;  see  Ardashir. 


I  Artaxata,  ii.  51,  56  f.,  81. 

Artaxes,  ii.  36-41. 
I  Artaxias  of  Armenia,  ii.  45  f, 

Asander,  i.  338,  339  n. 

Ascalon,  ii.  230. 

Asia  Minor  :  natives  and  colonists, 
i.  347  ;  Hellenism,  348  f.  ;  forma- 
tion of  new  centres,  349 ;  prov- 
inces of,  350  ;  territories  added  to 
empire,  350  f.  ;  senatorial  and  im- 
perial government,  350  f . ;  changes 
in  boundaries  of  provinces  and 
vassal-states,  351  n.  ;  municipal 
vanity,  355  n.  ;  honorary  Hellen- 
ism, 372 ;  leagues  of  Hellenism, 
372,  373  n.  ;  representatives,  372 
n.  ;  land-diets  and  land  festi- 
vals, 372  f .  ;  provincial  priests 
and  Asiarchs,  374  f.  ;  superintend- 
ence of  emperor-worship,  376 ; 
system  of  religion,  379  ;  public 
safety,  379  ;  occupying  force,  380 
f.  ;  justice  in,  381  n.  ;  constitu- 
tion of  towns,  382  f.  ;  clubs,  383  ; 
free  autonomous  communities, 
383;  urban  life,  384  f.  ;  prosper- 
ity, 384  f.  ;  defects  of  municipal 
administration,  386  ;  roads,  388  n. ; 
trade,  389  f .  ;  commerce,  390  ;  sup- 
plies teachers  and  physicians  to 
Italy,  391,  395 ;  literary  activity, 
392  ;  instruction,  392  ;  sophistic 
system,  393-396. 

Asia,  Roman  :  extent  of  province,  i. 
352  ;  coast-towns,  352  f .  ;  inland 
townships,  353  f . ;  position  under 
Romans,  354 ;  urban  rivalries,  356 
f.  ;  legions  in,  ii.  67. 

Asiarchs,  i.  374-376  n. 

Asklepios,  i.  379. 

Asoka,  ii.  14,  15  n. 

Astarte,  ii.  360. 

Astingi,  i.  256. 

Astures,  i.  71,  77. 

Asturica,  Augusta,  i.  72. 

Athens  :  privileged  position,  i.  275, 
279 ;  administration,  300  f . ;  pos- 
sessions, 300 ;  Hadrian's  grants, 
301  f .  ;  street-riots,  302  ;  state  of 
the  language,  305,  306  n. 

Atropatene,  ii.  19,  21, 30  f.,  36  f.,  40. 

Attalia,  i.  361. 

Augusta  Emerita,  i.  70  n. 

Augusta  Praetoria  (Aosta),  i.  23  f. 

Augusta  Vindelicorum,  i.  23,  166, 
213  f. 

Augustamnica,  ii.  324. 

Augustan  History,  falsification  as  to 
Postumus,  i.  178  n. 

Augustodunum,  seat  of  Gallic  stud- 
ies, i.  133  f. 


380 


Index. 


Augustinus,  Aurelius,  picture  of 
Carthage,  ii.  372 ;  Itala,  374  n.  ; 
Confessions^  376. 

Augustus,  the  Emperor  :  expedition 
against  Alpine  tribes,  i.  18 ;  mon- 
ument to,  above  Monaco,  19; 
roads  or  colonies  in  Alps,  21  f . ; 
visit  to  Germany,  29;  German 
policy  and  motives  for  changing 
it,  61-65 ;  visits  Spain,  70  ;  organi- 
sation of  towns  there,  74  f.  ;  or- 
ganisation of  the  three  Gauls,  91 
f .  ;  restricted  franchise  of  Gauls, 
107 ;  altar  at  Lugudunum,  101 ; 
altar  for  Germanic  cantons,  39, 
106,  127 ;  discharge  of  Batavian 
guards,  131 ;  project  of  connect- 
ing Rhine  and  Danube,  159  ;  proj- 
ects as  to  Britain  not  carried  out, 
187 ;  reasons  for  and  against  its 
occupation,  187  ;  conviction  of  its 
necessity,  188  f.  ;  arrangements 
on  the  Danubian  frontier,  212  f.  ; 
Illyricum  subdued,  218 ;  settle- 
ment of  veterans  in  Dalmatia, 
219 ;  his  Amphictiony,  275  f.  ; 
dealings  with  Greece,  283 ;  treat- 
ment of  Athens,  300  ;  insurrection 
at,  302  ;  foundation  and  privileges 
of  Nicopolis,  320  f .  ;  colonies  in 
Macedonia,  326;  pacification  of 
Cilicia  and  Pisidia,  363  f.  ;  diets 
and  festivals  for,  in  Asia  Minor, 
373 ;  cancels  debtors'  claims  there, 
386;  decorum  of,  ii.  28  n.  ;  first 
arrangements  in  East,  37  f . ;  policy 
open  to  him,  38  ;  inadequate 
measures,  39  f.  ;  in  Syria  (20 
B.C.),  40  f.  ;  mission  of  Gains  to 
East,  41 ;  Nicolaus  Damascenus 
on  his  youth,  182  ;  treatment  of 
the  Jews,  186  f .  ;  dealing  with 
Herod's  testament,  198,  200 ;  atti- 
tude towards  J  ewish  worship,  202 ; 
annexation  of  Egypt,  252  f . ,  259 ; 
Egyptian  titles,  265  ;  policy  as  to 
south-western  Arabia,  315  ;  expe- 
dition of  Gallus,  315  f. ;  of  Gains, 
318;  repression  of  piracy  in  Red 
Sea,  324 ;  colonisation  in  Maiu:e- 
tania,  362 ;  death,  i.  57. 

Aurelianus,  defeats  the  Juthungi,  i. 
180  ;  combats  with  the  Goths  on 
Danube,  268  f.  ;  against  the  Pal- 
myrenes,  ii.  117  f.  ;  battle  of  He- 
mesa,  118  w,.,  119  n.  ;  destruction 
of  Palmyra,  120  n. 

Aurelius  Antoninus,  Marcus,  Ger- 
many under,  i.  174  ;  Chattan  war, 
174  ;  Roman  wall  in  Britain  at- 
tacked, 204 ;  Marcomanian  war, 


248  f.  ;  his  qualities,  251 ;  prog- 
ress of  war,  251  f.  ;  takes  name 
of  Germanicus,  253 ;  terms  laid 
down  for  the  vanquished,  254 ; 
second  war,  254 ;  death,  255  ;  Par- 
thian war  under  Marcus  and  Ve- 
rus,  ii.  79  f.  ;  embassy  to  China, 
328. 

Aiures,  ii.  344,  346,  348. 

AusoDius,  i.  119,  123  n. 

Autonomy,  idea  of,  ii.  131. 

Autricum,  i.  99. 

Auzia,  ii.  346,  354. 

Aventicum,  i,  140. 

A  vesta,  ii,  10. 

Axidares,  ii.  70  n. 

Axomis,  kingdom  of,  ii.  305  n.  ; 
extent  and  development,  306  f.  ; 
Rome  and  the  Axomites,  308  ;  en- 
voys to  Arvidian,  308 ;  relation  to 
piracy,  324. 

Azania,  ii.  314. 

Bactra,  ii.  15,  16  w.,  19. 

Bactro-Indian  empire,  ii.  15,  18  n. 

Baetica,  i.  73  ;  towns  with  burgess- 
rights,  74  ;  exemption  from  levy, 
80;  Moors  in,  ii.  353. 

Bagradas,  ii.  367. 

Balbus,  Lucius  Cornelius,  ii.  343  n. 
Ballomarius,  i.-  249  n. 
Bamanghati,  coins  found  at,  ii.  328  n. 
Baquates,  ii.  353,  354  n. 
Bar-Kokheba,  Simon,  ii.  244  n. 
Barley-wine,  i.  117  n. 
Barsemias  of  Hatra,  ii.  83. 
Barygaza,  ii.  17  w.,  327. 
Basil  of  Caesarea,  i  360, 
Bassus,  Caecilius,  ii.  23  f. 
Bassus,  Publius  Ventidius,  ii.  34, 
29. 

Bastarnae,  i.  14,  235,  257. 

Batanaea,  ii.  157  ;  see  Hauran. 

Batavi,  i.  31,  48,  106  n.  ;  settle- 
ments and  privileges,  130 ;  rising 
of  Batavian  auxiliaries,  140  f.  ; 
Civilis,  141  ;  progress  of  the 
movement,  141  f.  ;  its  conse- 
quences, 154  f . ;  later  attitude, 
156. 

Bato,  the  Dalmatian,  i.  43,  45. 
Bato,  the  Pannonian,  i.  43-46. 
Beads,  glass,  ii.  278. 
Beer,  i.  117. 

Belatucadrus  (Mars),  i.  209. 
Belgica,  i.  92  ;  division  of  command, 

\2%n. 
Belus,  ii.  289. 

Berbers,  ii.  330  f.;  type,  331,  332  w.; 
language,  354  f . ;  organisation  of 
gentes,  364  f . 


Im 


Berenice,  sister  of  Agrippa  II.,  ii. 

Berenice,  Trogodytic,  ii.  304,  308, 

310,  313,  323. 
Beroe,  i.  260. 

Berytus,  ii.  132 ;  Latin  island  in  the 
East,  142 ;  factories  in  Italy,  151  n. 

Bescera,  ii.  348. 

Bessi,  i.  14,  227  n. 

Bether,  ii.  244. 

Betriacum,  i.  141,  154. 

Biriparach,  ii.  86  n. 

Bithynia,  i.  350,  351,  857;  Greek 
settlements  in,  357  f.  ;  Hellenism 
of,  35S  f.  ;  place  in  literature,  358 ; 
Gothic  raids,  266. 

Bithyniarch,  i.  374. 

Blaesus,  Quintas  Junius,  ii.  346. 

Blemyes,  ii.  271,  301,  302. 

Bocchus,  ii.  336,  338,  338  n. 

Boeotian  league,  i.  280,  287. 

Bogud,  ii.  .335  f.,  338,  338 

Borani,  i.  263,  265. 

Bosporan  kingdom,  i.  262;  Greek 
towns  of,  264,  338 ;  kings,  340  n.  ; 
extent  of,  341  f.;  coins,  344  315; 
titles,  343  ti.  ;  military  position, 
343  f . ;  court,  346  ;  trade  and  com- 
merce, 346. 

Bostra,  ii.  102  ;  plain  around,  158  f.  ; 
legionary  camp  at,  167 ;  impor- 
tance of,  169  ;  Hellenic  basis,  170. 

Boudicca,  i.  195,  197,  204. 

Boule,  the,  in  Egyptian  cities,  ii. 
256  n. 

Breuci,  i.  26. 

Brigantes,  i.  194,  196,  198,  204. 
Brigetio,  i.  247. 

Britain,  Caesar's  expedition,  i.  185 ; 
designs  of  Augustus,  186  ;  reasons 
for  and  against  occupation,  187  f.; 
conviction  of  its  necessity,  188  f.; 
occasion  for  the  war,  189  ;  arrange- 
ments for  occupation,  190  n.\  its 
course,  190  t ;  Roman  towns,  192 ; 
resistance  in  West  Britain,  193 ; 
national  insurrection,  195 ;  sub- 
jugation of  the  West,  196  ;  of  the 
North,  198  ;  Caledonia  abandoned, 
200 ;  grounds  for  this  policy,  200  f . ; 
divM:sities  of  race,  201  ;  fortifying 
of  northern  frontier,  202  f . ;  wars 
in  second  and  third  centuries, 
204  f . ;  Roman  fleet,  206  ;  garrison 
and  administration,  206  ;  taxation 
and  levy,  237  f . ;  communal  organ- 
isation, 208  ;  prosperity,  209 ; 
roads,  209 ;  Roman  manners  and 
culture,  209  ;  country  houses,  211  ; 
scholastic  training,  211. 

Brixia,  i.  98. 


dex.  381 


Bructeri,  i.  41,  56,  144,  157. 

Burdigala,  i.  122. 

Burebista,  i.  15,  234,  238,  335  f. 

Burgundiones,  i.  181. 

Buri,  i.  240,  243. 

Burnum,  i.  220. 

Burrus,  ii.  224. 

Busiris,  ii.  273. 

Buthrotum,  i.  320. 

Byzacene,  ii.  367. 

Byzantium,  i.  266,  316,  330,  331  n.. 
334. 

Cabinet-secretary,  imperial,  ii 

296  f. 
Cadusians,  ii.  94  n. 
Caecina,  Aulus,  governor  of  Moesia, 

i.  54  f.;  march  to  the  Ems,  and 

retreat,  57  f. 
Caedicius,  Lucius,  defence  of  Aliso, 

i.53. 

Caesar,  Gains  Julius,  measures  for 
Dalmatian  war,  i.  9  f .  ;  Romanis- 
ing of  southern  Gaul,  93  ;  policy 
as  to  cantons  of  Gaul,  100  f.  ;  Bri- 
tannic expedition  and  aims,  185 ; 
project  of  crossing  Euphrates,  ii. 
23  ;  arrangements  as  to  Judaea, 
190  f.  ;  African  policy,  334  f.  ; 
Italian  colonists  in  Africa,  362. 

Caesar,  Gains,  mission  to  East,  ii. 
41  f . ;  meeting  with  Phraataces,  42 ; 
early  death,  42. 

Caesaraugusta,  i.  75. 

Caesarea  in  Cappadocia,  i.  360 ;  ii. 
110  f. 

Caesarea  (lol),  province  of,  ii.  340, 
341,  349. 

Caesarea  Paneas,  ii.  70,  160,  165. 

Caesarea  Stratonis,  ii.  197,  202  f.  ; 
insurrection,  224  f.,  227  f.  ;  obtains 
Roman  organisation,  237. 

Caesarion,  ii.  27  n.^  28  n. 

Caesian  Forest,  i.  134. 

Calama,  ii.  347  w  .,  358  n.,  365  n. 

Caledonia  abandoned,  i.  200;  prob- 
able grounds  for  this  policy,  200  f . ; 
under  Severus,  205. 

Caligula,  Gains  Caesar,  incapable  of 
serious  plans,  i.  187 ;  declines 
' '  great  number  "  of  statues,  316  ; 
the  Bast  under,  ii.  48 ;  pardons 
Aretas,  165 ;  treatment  of  Jews, 
208  f. ;  Jewish  deputations  to, 
210  f.;  orders  his  effigy  to  be  set 
up  in  the  Temple,  212;  death, 
212. 

Callaecia,  Roman,  i.  69  f .  ;  separated 

from  Lusitania,  71. 
Calhstus,  ii.  110  w.,  111. 
Calybe,  i.  328.  330  n. 


382 


Index. 


Camalodnnum,  i.  185,  186,  191,  192, 

195,  209  f. 
Camels  in  Africa,  ii.  370. 
Camunni,  i.  18  f. 
Canabae,  i.  182. 

Canal,  Egyptian,  ii.  303,  304,  323  f. 
Canatha,  ii.  16'J  ;  temple  of  Baalsa- 

min,  170  ;     Odeon,"  172. 
Candace,  ii.  299      300,  301. 
Cane,  ii.  322. 
Canius  Rufus,  i.  83. 
Cannenefates,  i.  41,  106  w.,  131,  137 

f.,  140,  142,  153. 
Canopus,  ii.  281  7i.  ;  decree  of,  283. 
Cantabri,  i.  71,  72,  73. 
Cantonal  system  of  Spain,   i.  77, 

78  n.  ;  of  Gaul,  97  f.  ;  influence  of , 

102;  cantons  represented  in  diet, 

103  n.,  105  n.  ;  in  Britain,  208. 
Cappadocia,  i.  3.50,  351  ;  inland,  359 ; 

division  into  praefectures,   360 ; 

Greek  accent  of,  360;  ii.  21,  43, 

67. 

Caracalla,  Severus  Antoninus,  cam- 
paign against  Alamanni,  i.  175  ; 
named  Geticus,  258 ;  Parthian 
war,  ii.  93  ;  assassinated,  95  ;  treat- 
ment of  Alexandria,  286;  unit- 
ing the  vices  of  three  races,  138, 
371. 

Caratacus,  i.  191  f.,  194. 

Caravans,  Palmyrene,  ii.  106  n. 

Caren,  ii.  6,  49,  90. 

Carnuntum,  i.  26,  215,  223. 

Carnutes,  i.  99. 

Carpi,  i.  257  f. 

Carrhae,  ii.  23,  25,  83,  124. 

Carthage, 'ii.  334,  359,  360,  371. 
Carthage,  New,  1.  74. 
Cartimandus,  i.  198  f. 
Carus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Persian 

war,  ii.  122  f.  ;  death,  123. 
Caspian  gates,  ii.  65  n. 
Cassius,  Avidius,  ii.  SOn.^  284. 
Cassivellannus,  i.  185. 
Castra  Regina,  i.  214. 
Cattigara,  ii.  328. 
Catualda,  i.  67,  233. 
Caucasian  tribes,  ii.  37,  38,  65,  72, 

78^..,  97  n.  _ 
Cavalry  recruited  mainly  from  Gaul, 

i.  116. 

Celtic  inscriptions,  i.  108  n.  ;  divin- 
ities, 113  f.;  language,  see  Gaul. 

Cenomani,  i.  98. 

Census  of  Gaul,  i.  91. 

Cerialis,  Quintus  Petillius,  i.  151  f., 
153,  196,  199. 

Cernunnos,  i.  113. 

Chaeremon,  ii.  282,  296  n. 


Chaeronea  in  the  civil  wars,  i.  290. 
Chalcedon,  i.  265. 
Chalcidian  peninsula,  i.  325. 
Chandragupta,  ii.  14. 
Charax  Spasinu,  ii.  73,  106  7i. 
Charibael,  ii.  819  n. 
Chariomerus,  i.  158. 
Chastisement,  corporal,  in  Egypt,  ii. 
261  n. 

Chatramotitis,  ii.  311,  315,  321. 

Chatti,  i.  SO,  32,  33,  .56,  144;  take 
the  lead,  161  ;  Chattan  wars, 
162  n.  ;  under  Domiti^'  163  n., 
171;  under  Marcus,  174,  214, 
249  f. 

Chauci,  i.  32 ;  renewed  rising,  40, 
48  ;  settlements  and  attitude,  131 ; 
revolt,  136. 

CJicmi^  ii.  273. 

Chemmis,  ii.  255. 

Cherusci,  i.  30,  31,  32;  rising,  40; 
under  Arminius,  47,  57,  65  ;  later 
position,  156. 

China,  embassy  to,  ii.  328. 

Chosroes,  ii.  70. 

Chosroes  Nushirvan,  ii.  147. 

Chrestus,  ii.  217  n. 

Christianity  in  Syria,  ii.  138  ;  SjTiac 
Christian  literature,  136 ;  Chris- 
tian symbols,  154  ;  effect  on  Chris- 
tians of  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
239  f.  ;  Christians  not,  like  Jews, 
a  nation,  245  oi.  ;  Christianity  and 
Judaism,  249  f.  ;  Christians  and 
the  imperial  cultus,  i.  377  ;  con- 
ception of  the  persecutions  of  the 
Christians,  ii.  215  7i. 

Chrysogonus,  i.  265. 

Cidamus,  ii.  344. 

Cilicia,  i.  350,  351  ;  piracy  in,  362  ; 

becomes  province,  361. 
Cimbri,  i.  41. 
Cinithii,  ii.  346. 
Circesium,  ii.  98,  102  n. 
Circumcision,  ii.  243 ;  prohibited, 

248  n. 

Cirta,  ii.  338      347,  362,  373. 

Civilis,  i.  141  f .  ;  siege  of  Vetera, 
145  f.  ;  capitulation  of  Romans, 
149 ;  last  struggles,  153  f . 

Classicus,  Julius,  i.  149  f. 

Claudius  I. ,  emperor,  a  true  Gaul,  i. 
107 ;  cancels  restriction  of  Gallic 
franchise,  108  ;  rising  of  Chauci, 
136;  directs  withdrawal  from 
right  bank  of  Rhine.  136  ;  occupa- 
tion of  Britain,  187,  190  f.  ;  Jazy- 
ges  under,  235  ;  re-establishes  old 
arrangement  in  Greece,  299  ;  pol- 
icy of  Claudius  in  the  Eatit,  ii.  48  ; 
death,  52 ;   policy    towards  the 


Index. 


383 


Jews,  216  f.  ;  directs  his  works  to 

be  read  publicly,  295. 
Claudius  Gothicus,  Gothic  victories 

of,  i.   207  f.  ;  renewed  fortifying 

of  Danubian  frontier,  268. 
Cleopatra,  ii.  27  n.,  30,  194  f. 
Clitae,  i.  364. 
Clubs,  i.  383,  385. 

Cnidus,  appeal  to  the  Emperor  from, 

i.  381  n. 
Cogidumnus,  i.  191. 
Colonate,  i.  356. 
Columella,  i.  83. 
Column  of  Trajan,  i.  242  f. 
Commagene,  ii.  21  ;   annexed,  43 ; 

kingdom  revived  by  Gains,   48 ; 

province,  67  129. 
Commodus,    conflicts     in  Britain 

under,  i.  205 ;  frontier-regulation 

in  Dacia,   247  ;   character,    255 ; 

peace  with  Marcomani,  256. 
Concordia,  coemeterium  of,  ii.  153. 
Coptic,  ii.  265. 

Coptos,  ii.  273,  304,  313,  323  n. 

Corbulo,  Gnaeus  Domitius,  reduces 
Frisians,  i.  136  ;  directed  to  with- 
draw from  right  bank  of  Rhine, 
136 ;  sent  to  Cappadocia,  ii.  52 ; 
character  of  ti;oops,  53  ;  offensive 
against  Tiridates,  55  ;  in  Armenia, 
56  n. ;  capitulation  of  Paetus,  61 
w.,  62  n. ;  conclusion  of  peace, 
61-64 ;  partiality  of  Tacitus's  ac- 
count, 61  w.,  62       64  n. 

Corduba  in  Latin  literature,  i.  82. 

Corinth,  treatment  of,  i.279;  Caesar's 
atonement,  281  f. 

Corn  drawn  from  Egypt,  ii.  260  f. 

Correctores^  i.  303  f. 

Corycus,  epitaphs  of  Christians  at, 
i.  389  n.,  391  n. 

Costoboci,  i.  262. 

Cottius  of  Segusio,  i.  19,  20. 

Cotys,  i.  228  n. 

Cragus-Sidyma,  i.  384  f. 

Cremna,  i.  363,  364,  365. 

Crete,  i.  350,  351,  371. 

Ctesiphon,  ii.  3,  8,  30,  82,  85,  90,  123. 

Cugerni,  i.  37,  134  n. 

Cur  obelinus,  i.  186  n.,  189,  191. 

Cyprian,  ii.  376. 

Cyprus,  i.  350,  351,  371  ;  Jews  in,  ii. 
240  f.,  242,  245. 

Cyrene,  i.  350  f.  ;  Pentapolis,  371  ; 
"peasants,"  371;  categories  of 
population,  ii.  179  n.  ;  Jewish  ris- 
ing in,  240,  242,  255  n. 

Cyzicus,  i.  357,  377. 

Dabel,  ii.  162  w.,  165. 

Daci  and  Dacia :  preparations  for 


Dacian  war,  i.  12  ;  internal  trou- 
bles, 13 ;  raid  to  Apollonia,  15 ; 
war  of  Lentulus,  46  ;  Dacian  lan- 
guage, 225  ;  Daci  under  Tiberius, 
235  ;  war  under  Domitian,  238 ; 
chronology  of  it,  239  n.  ;  war  un- 
der Trajan,  240  f.  ;  second  war, 
241  f.  ;  Dacia  an  advanced  posi- 
tion, 247  f.  ;  loss  of  Dacia,  261. 

Daesitiatae,  i.  43  f . ,  46. 

Dalmatia,  war,  i.  10  f.  ;  towns  with 
Roman  franchise,  12;  Dalmato- 
Pannonian  rising,  43  f.  ;  Italian 
civilisation,  218  ;  ports,  219;  state 
of  interior,  220;  prosperity  under 
Diocletian,  221  f. 

Damascus,  environs  of,  ii.  157 ; 
Greek,  159  ;  under  Nabataean  pro- 
tection, 1 62  11.  ;  relation  to  Aretas, 
162  n.  ;  Jews  in,  181 ;  Jews  put  to 
death,  227. 

Danava,  ii.  102,  167. 

Danube,  region  of,  i.  24  f .  ;  boundary 
of  empire,  26,  212  f.  ;  fleet,  222 ; 
army,  236  f.  ;  military  position 
after  Trajan,  244 ;  primacy  of 
Danubian  armies,  271. 

Daphne,  ii.  119 ;  pleasure-garden, 
140,  141  n. 

Dardani,  i.  11,  14,  324. 

Decapolis,  ii.  159  n. 

Decebalus,  i.  238  f.,  242. 

Decianus,  i.  83. 

Decianus  Catus,  i.  196. 

Decius  Traianus,  proclaimed  em- 
peror, i.  259 ;  conflicts  with  Goths 
and  relief  of  Nicopolis,  260 ; 
death,  260. 

Declamations  in  Gaul,  i.  124. 

Decumates  {agri).,  i.  165  w.,  213  f. 

Deiotarus,  i.  367  f. 

Dellius,  ii.  34  n. 

Delminium,  i.  220. 

Delos,  i.  280,  292;  Delian  inscrip- 
tions, ii.  280  n. 

Dentheletae,  i.  14. 

Deultus,  i.  332. 

Deva,  camp  of,  i.  194,  210. 

Dexippus,  i.  259  260  n.,  263  w., 
266  n.,  267?*.,  304. 

Diegis,  i.  239. 

Dio  of  Prusa,  i.  291  f.,  297,  317  n., 
397  f . ;  address  to  Rhodians,  i.  293  f . 

Diocletianus  :  favour  for  Dalmatia 
and  Salonae,  i.  221  f .  ;  Sarmatian 
victories,  270  ;  Persian  war  under, 
ii.  124  f.  ;  terms  of  peace,  125  ;  re- 
volt in  Egypt,  273  ;  edict,  as  to 
grain,  273  f.,  as  to  linen,  277  n.  ; 
resolves  to  cede  the  Dodecaschoiiios 
to  Nubians,  301  f . 


384 


Index. 


Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria/Ii. 
272  n. 

Dionysius,  cabinet  secretary,  ii. 
297  n. 

Dionysos,  Thracian  sbrine  of,  i.  16, 

28  ;  Thraciau  god,  226. 
Dioscorides,  island  of,  ii.  314,  322, 
Dioscurias,  i.  262. 
Dmer,  ii.  162  w.,  167. 
Dodecaschoinos,  ii.  300  n.,  301  n.. 

302  n. 
Dodona,  i.  322  n. 

Dolabella,  Publius  Cornelius,  ii.  346. 

Domitianus :  careful  administration, 
i.  117  ;  restricts  number  of  vines, 
118  f.  ;  wars  with  the  Chatti,  162 
f.  ;  construction  of  the  Flavian 
altars,"  165 ;  Dacian  war,  238  f.  ; 
defeated  by  Marcomani,  239 ;  gives 
urban  rights  to  Philippopolis,  332. 

Domitius  Afer,  Gnaeus,  i.  121. 

Double  names  in  Egpyt,  ii.  265. 

Drobetae,  bridge  at,  i.  241. 

Druids  and  Druidism  in  Gaul,  i.  113 
f.  ;  prohibited  by  Tiberius  and 
Claudius,  114  ;  schools  of  priests, 
121  ;  in  Anglesey,  201. 

Druidesses,  i.  115. 

Drusus,  Nero  Claudius :  victory 
over  Raeti,  i.  19,  20 ;  sent  to  the 
Rhine,  25  ;  German  war,  30  f .  ;  ex- 
pedition to  North  Sea,  32 ;  death 
of,  33  f.  ;  character,  30,  34 ;  Ger- 
man tribes  subdued,  134  f . 

Dubnovellaunus,  i.  186  n. 

Durocortorum,  i.  97. 

Durostorum,  i.  245,  335. 

Dusaris,  ii.  168 ;  Dusaria,  168  n. 

Dyarchy  not  applied  in  Egypt,  ii. 
253. 

Dyme,  letter  of  governor  to,  i.  282  n. 
Dynamis,  i.  339. 
Dyrrachium,  i.  219,  325,  326. 

EA.RTHQUAKES  in  Asia  Minor,  i.  888. 
Eburacum,  i.  199,  202,  210. 
Ecbatana,  ii.  4,  30. 
Edessa,  ii.  72  f.,  82,  83,  85, 108,  110, 
136  n. 

Education  in  Gaul,  i.  121  f.  ;  in  Asia 
Minor,  392  f.  ;  in  Africa,  ii.  371  f . 

Egypt :  annexation,  ii.  252  f .  ;  exclu- 
sively an  imperial  possession,  253 
f.;  twofold  nationality,  254  ;  land- 
districts  and  Greek  cities,  255  f.  ; 
coinage,  257  n.  ;  absence  of  land- 
diet,  258 ;  government  of  Lagids, 
259  f.  ;  imperial  administration 
financially,  259  f.  ;  revenues,  260  j 
f.;  privileged  position  of  Hellenes,  | 
261  f.  ;  personal  privileges  in  Ro- 


man period,  262  ;  native  language, 
264  ;  titles  of  Augustus  in,  265  n.  ; 
abolition  of  resident  court,  265  f .  ; 
officials,  general  and  local,  267-269; 
insurrections,  271  ;  in  the  Palmy- 
rene  period  (ii.  116  f.),  271  f.  ;  re- 
volt under  Diocletian,  273  ;  oppo- 
sition emperors,  273  ;  agriculture, 
273  ;  granary  of  Rome,  274  f.  ;  rev- 
enue from  imperial  domains,  275 
w.,  276 ;  trades,  277  ;  linen,  277 ; 
papyrus,  277 ;  building  materials, 

278  ;  navigation  of  Mediterranean, 

279  f .  ;  population,  280  ;  manners, 
281  f.  ;  religious  customs,  282  f.  ; 
.  sorcery,  283 ;  other  abuses  con- 
nected with  the  cultus,  283;  re- 
volt of  the  "Herdsmen,"  284  f.  ; 
Alexandria,  285-206  ;  strength  of 
occupying  army,  297  f.  ;  recruited 
from  camp-children,  297  ;  task  of 
the  troops,  298  ;  east  coast  and 
general  commerce,  302  f.  ;  canal, 
303  f.  ;  sea-route  to  India,  303  ; 
eastern  ports,  304  ;  relations  with 
west  coast  of  Arabia,  309  f .  ;  land-* 
routes  and  harbours,  323 ;  piracy 
repressed,  324 ;  active  traffic  to 
the  East,  325  f. 

Eirenarchs,  i.  381  n.,  382. 
Elagabalus.  origin  of  name,  ii.  135. 
Elateia,  i.  262. 

Eleazar,  ii.  225,  227,  233,  234. 
Eleazar  of  Modein,  ii.  244  n. 
Elegeia,  battle  of,  ii.  80. 
Eleutherolacones,  i.  282  n. 
Elis,  i.  283  n.  •  flax  of,  317. 
Elymais,  ii.  7. 
Emmaus,  ii.  231  f.,  237. 
Emona,  i.  12,  23,  2i5,  223. 
Ephesus,  i.  357,  390,  391. 
Epictetus,  i.  296. 

Epidaphne^  a  blunder  of  Tacitus,  ii 
140  n. 

Epirus,  i.  319  f.  ;  northern,  i.  322. 
Equestrian  offices  in  Egypt,  ii.  253 

w.,  263  n.,  267,  268,  271. 
Eratosthenes,  ii.  262  n. 
Esus,  i.  113. 

Ethnarch  of  the  Jews  in  Alexandria, 
ii.  210  n. 

Euergetes,  title  of,  ii.  259. 

Eumolpidae,  i.  304. 

Eupatorids,  i.  341. 

Euphorion,  librarian  to  Antiochus 
the  Great,  ii.  142. 

Euphrates,  frontier  of  the,  ii.  1 ;  Ro- 
mano-Parthian frontier-regions, 
20 ;  recognised  as  boundary,  22  ; 
customs-district,  75  f.,  106  n.  \ 
Romans  on  left  bank,  83  ;  need 


Index. 


385 


of  watch,  129  f. ;  as  route  for  cc 

merce,  302  f . 
Europus,  battle  at,  ii.  83. 
Eurycles,  i.  307. 

Exegetes  in  Alexandria,  ii.  2G9  n. 
Eziongeber,  ii.  313  n. 
Ezra,  ii.  175. 

Fadus,  Cuspius,  ii.  223. 
Faustinopolis,  i.  360. 
Favorinus,  polymath,  i.  130  f. 
Felix,  Antonius,  ii.  220,  223. 
Filosofi  locus,  ii.  373. 
Firmus  in  Egypt,  ii.  130  n. 
Flaccus,  Avillius,  ii.  309  n.,  210. 

Flavian  altars,"  i.  165  n. 
Florus,  Gessius,  ii.  235. 
Forath,  ii.  106  n. 
Forum  Julii,  i.  93. 
Frankincense  routes,  ii.  310  w.,  313 

w.,  336. 

Franks,  i.  177,  179,  181 ;  settled  on 

Black  Sea,  370. 
Frontinus,  Sextus  Julius,  i.  197. 
Fronto,  Marcus  Claudius,  i.  253. 
Fronto,  Marcus  Cornelius,  ii.  373. 
Frisians,  i.  30,  31,  48, 106      131, 134, 

137  w.,  140,  142,  156. 
Furtius,  i.  253  f. 
Fuscus,  Arellius,  i.  395. 
Fuscus,  Cornelius,  i.  239. 

Gabinius,  Aulus,  ii.  189  f.,  252. 

Gades,  i.  74,  81  f.  ;  Gaditanian 
songs,  82. 

Gaetulians,  ii.  331,  351  n.,  353  f. 

Galatia,  i.  350  f.,  368,  366  f.  ;  Gala- 
tian  kingdom,  367  f.  ;  province, 
368 ;  inhabitants,  368 ;  former 
cantons,  369 ;  language  under  the 
Romans,  369  f.  ;  Galatians  as  sol- 
diers, 370  ;  garrison  of,  379. 

Galatarchs,  i.  378  n.  ;  Julian's  letter 
to,  378  n. 

Galba,  i.  141 ;  ii.  314  w.,  331. 

Galenus  of  Pergamus,  i.  396. 

Gallicus,  Gains  Rutilius,  ii.  68  n. 

Gallienus,  energetic  action  in  Ger- 
many, i.  177  ;  victory  over  pirates 
at  Thrace,  266 ;  character,  367 ; 
murder,  367  ;  recognition  of  Odae- 
nathus,  ii.  Ill  f. 

Gallus,  Gaius  Aelius,  expedition  of, 
ii.  316  f.  ;  Strabo's  account  of  it, 
316  n. 

Gallus,  Gaius  Cestius,  ii.  338  f. 
Gallus,  Trebonianus,  i.  360  f. 
Ganna,  i.  158. 
Gannascus,  i.  136. 
Garamantes,  ii.  336,  343,  346. 
Gaul,  administrative  partition  of,  i. 

Vol.  II.— 25 


37  n. ;  acquisition  of  Southern, 

85  ;  later  conflicts  in  three  Gauls, 

86  f.  ;  Celtic  rising  under  Tibe- 
rius, 87  ;  gradual  pacification,  88  ; 
rising  after  Nero's  death,  89,  148 
f .  ;  Romanising  policy,  89  f.  ;  or- 
ganisation of  the  three  Gauls,  91 
f . ;  law  and  justice,  93  ;  Romanis- 
ing of  Southern  province,  93  f.  ; 
cantonal  organisation,  97  f.  ;  influ- 
ence of  cantonal  constitution, 
100  ;  smaller  client-unions,  99  n.  ; 
diet,  101 ;  altar  and  priest,  101 ; 
composition  of  the  diets,  103  f.  ; 
officials,  103  n. ,  103  n. ;  restricted 
Roman  franchise,  106  f.  ;  Latin 
rights  conferred  on  individual 
communities,  107 ;  Celtic  language, 
108  f.  ;  evidences  of  its  continued 
use,  110  ;  Romanising  stronger  in 
Eastern  Gaul,  111  ;  land  measure- 
ment, 111  ;  religion,  113  ;  economic 
condition,  115 ;  culture  of  vine, 
117  ;  network  of  roads,  119  ;  Hel- 
lenism in  South  Gaul,  1 19  ;  Latin 
literature  in  Southern  province, 
131  ;  literature  in  imperial  Gaul, 
131 ;  constructive  and  plastic  art, 
124;  extent  of  the  three  Gauls, 
127  ;  attempt  to  establish  a  Gallic 
empire,  149-153. 

Gaza,  ii.  228. 

Gedrosia,  ii.  14. 

Geneva,  i.  98. 

Gens  and  civitas,  ii.  364  n. 

Georgius,  murder  of,  ii.  388. 

Gerba,  ii.  368. 
I  Germanicus,  associated  with  Tibe- 
rius, i.  46 ;  in  sole  command  on 
the  Rhine,  54  ;  course  after  death 
of  Augustus,  55;  renewed  offen- 
sive, 56  f.  ;  expedition  to  the 
Ems,  57  f.  ;  campaign  of  the 
year  16,  58  f.  ;  disaster  to  his 
fleet,  60 ;  recall,  60  ;  aims  and  re- 
sults of  campaigns,  60-65 ;  tri- 
umph, 67;  mission  to  the  East, 
ii.  43  ;  its  results,  44  f . 

Germany  and  Germans :  Rhine- 
boundary,  i.  38  f.  ;  war  of  Dru- 
sus,  30  f.  ;  Roman  camps  and 
base,  35  f .  ;  organisation  of  prov- 
ince, 39  ;  altar  for  Germanic  can- 
tons, 39, 188  ;  rising  under  Armin- 
ius,  47  f.  ;  character  of  Romano- 
German  conflict,  54  ;  abolition  of 
command-in-chief  on  the  Rhine, 
60 ;  Elbe  frontier  and  its  abandon- 
ment, 63-65 ;  Germans  against 
Germans,  66 ;  original  province, 
137;  Upper  and  Lower,  128  f.5 


386 


Index, 


strength  of  the  armies,  129  n.  ; 
right  bank  of  Rhine  abandoned, 
136  f .  ;  position  after  fall  of  Nero, 
138 ;  consequences  of  Batavian 
war,  154  f.  ;  later  attitude  of  Ro- 
mano-Germans on  left  bank,  156 
f .  ;  free  Germans  there,  157 ;  Up- 
per Germany,  159  f.  ;  Limes,  166- 
174  ;  distribution  of  troops,  169  n., 
172  n.  ;  under  Marcus,  174  ;  later 
wars,  175-182 ;  Romanising  of, 
182 ;  towns  arising  out  of  encamp- 
ments, 182 ;  Germanising  of  the 
Roman  state,  its  beginnings  and 
progress,  183  f.  ;  picture  of,  by 
Tacitus,  183. 
Gerusia,  i.  383. 

Geta,  Gnaeus  Hosidius,  ii.  352. 
Getae,  language  of,  i.  225. 
Gibbon,  i.  6. 

Gindarus,  battle  of,  ii.  25. 
Gladiatorial  games,  latest  in  Greece, 
i.  295. 

Glass  of  Sidon,  ii.  150 ;  glass-wares, 
278. 

Gods,  Iberian,  i,  82 ;  Celtic,  in  Spain, 
82  n.  ;  British,  209 ;  Syrian,  ii. 
134  ;  Egyptian,  255,  282  f. 

Gondopharus,  ii.  16,  17  n. 

Gordianus,  "conqueror  of  Goths," 
i.  259  ;  Persian  wars  of,  ii.  98. 

Gordiou  Kome,  i.  358. 

Gorneae,  ii.  51  n. 

Gotarzes,  ii.  8  w.,  13  w.,  49,  50. 

Goths :  migrations,  i.  257 ;  Gothic 
wars,  258;  under  Decius,  259 
f . ;  invasions  of  Macedonia  and 
Thrace,  260 ;  maritime  expedi- 
tions, 263  f .  ;  victories  of  Claudius, 
267  f.  ;  character  of  these  wars, 
269. 

Graupian  Mount,  battle  of,  i.  199  f., 
206. 

Great-king,  ii,  8. 

Greece  :  Hellas  and  Rome,  i.  274 ; 
towns  under  republic,  278 ;  city- 
leagues  broken  up,  278  f .  ;  revived, 
280;  freed  communities  and  col- 
onies, 279-283  ;  decay  of,  283  ;  de- 
crease of  population,  290 ;  state- 
ments of  Plutarch,  Dio,  and 
Strabo,  290  f.  ;  tone  of  feeling, 
293  f . ;  good  old  manners,  294  f .  ; 
parallel  between  Roman  and  Athe- 
nian life,  296  ;  misrule  of  provin- 
cial administration,  298  ;  misrule 
in  towns,  300 ;  clinging  to  mem- 
ories of  past,  303  ;  religion,  304  ; 
worship  of  pedigrees,  304  f.  ;  lan- 
guage— archaism  and  barbarism, 
305  f. ;   great  families,   307  f.  ; 


career  of  state-offices,  308  f . ; 
personal  service  of  the  emperor, 
309 ;  municipal  administration, 
309  ;  Plutarch  on  its  duties,  310  ; 
games,  universal  interest  in,  312- 
314  ;  municipal  ambition,  its  hon- 
ours and  toils,  315  f,  ;  trade  and 
commerce,  316  f.  ;  roads,  318  ; 
piratic  invasions,  i.  265  f.  ;  de- 
scription of  Greece  from  the  time 
of  Constantius,  i.  318  n. 

Greek  islands,  places  of  punish- 
ment, i.  371. 

Gregorius  Nazianzenus,  i.  360. 

Hadrianoi,  i.  355. 

Hadrianus  :  Hadrian's  wall,  i.  202  ; 
disaster  at  Eburacum,  204  n.  ; 
Panhellenism  at  Athens,  288 ; 
grants  to  Athens,  301  f. ;  his  Novae 
Athenae,  302  ;  Olympieion,  302  ; 
evacuates  Assyria  and  Mesopota- 
mia, and  restores  Armenia  as  vas- 
sal-state, ii.  76,  77  ;  Jewish  rising 
under,  242  f.  ;  lays  out  Antinoop- 
olis,  257 ;  gives  exceptional  right 
of  coining,  257 ;  alleged  letter  to 
Servianus,  279  n.  ;  Hadrian's 
road  "  in  Egypt,  323  n. 

Haedui,  i.  88,  108. 

Hairanes,  Septimius,  ii.  104  n. 

Harmozika,  ii.  68. 

Hasmonaeans,  ii.  175. 

Hatra,  ii.  74,  83,  85,  96. 

Hauran,  red  soil,  ii.  157;  mountain- 
pastures,  158  ;  cave-towns,  160  ; 
robbers,  161 ;  bilingual  inscrip- 
tions, 161  n.  ;  forts,  167  ;  agri- 
culture, 169  ;  Ledja,  169  ;  aque- 
ducts, 169  ;  buildings,  170. 

Hebron,  ii.  232. 

Hecatompylos,  ii.  4. 

Heliopolis,  ii.  132,  134. 

Helladarch,  i.  276,  288  w.,  372  n. 

Hellenism  and  Panhellenism,  i.  273  f . 

Helvetii,  i.  30,  99,  100,  107, 127,  129, 
139  ;  "Helvetian  desert,"  164. 

Hemesa,  ii.  Ill,  115,  119  f. ;  oil- 
presses  near,  149  n. 

Heraclea  (Chersonesus),  i.  331,  338  ; 
coins  of,  342  n. 

Hercules  in  Gaul,  i.  115. 

Herroogenes  of  Smyrna,  i.  397  n. 

Hermunduri,  i.  35,  42,  171  f.,  232  f. 

Herod  the  Great,  ii.  192  f.  ;  con- 
firmed by  Antonius  as  tetrarch, 
192  ;  king  of  Judaea,  193  ;  under 
Augustus,  194  ;  government  in  re- 
lation to  the  Romans,  195  f.  ;  in 
relation  to  the  Jews,  195  ;  charac- 
ter and  aims,  196  f.  ;  energy  of 


Index. 


387 


his  rule,  197  ;  extent  of  his  domin- 
ions, 198  ;  partition  of  his  king- 
dom, 198;  revenues  of,  203  n.  ; 
territory  beyond  the  Jordan,  ii. 
160  f.  ;  represses  brigandage,  160. 
Ilerod  Agrippa  I.,  ii.  53,  208,  311 
f.,  318. 

lierod  Agrippa  II.,  ii.  166,  186,  188 
n.,  197,  198,  335,  327,  238. 

Herod  Antipas,  ii.  165. 

liorod  of  Chalcis,  ii.  319. 

Herodes  Atticus,  i.  304,  306,  308  n. 

Herodians,  ii.  338. 

Heroonpolis,  ii.  384. 

Heruli,  i.  366  f. 

Hiera  Sycaminos,  ii.  300  n. 

Hilary  of  Poitiers,  opinion  of  his 
countrymen,  i.  90. 

Hippalus,  ii.  336. 

Hippo,  ii.  338,  348,  357,  370. 

Homeritep,  ii.  311  f.  ;  coinage,  313 
f . ,  315  ;  later  fortunes,  330  ;  united 
with  kingdom  of  Axomites,  321 
n. ;  commercial  intercourse  of,  333. 

Homonadenses,  i.  363  f . 

Hordeonius  Flaccus,  i.  143. 

Hyginus,  i.  83. 

Hypatia,  murder  of,  ii.  388. 

Hyrcanus,  ii.  189,  190  w.,  193,  194. 

Iaptdes,  i.  11. 

lazyges,  i.  334,  339,  350,  353. 

Iberians,  range  and  language,  i.  75  ; 
Romanising,  75  f.  ;  north  of  Pyre- 
nees, 86  ;  coinage,  86  n. 

Iceni,  i.  195. 

Iconium,  i.  364  f. 

Idiologus^  ii.  368  n. 

Idumaea,  ii.  331,  233. 

Igel  column,  i.  135  f. 

Igilgili,  ii.  350. 

Illyrian  stock,  i.  316  f.  ;  range  and 
character,  216  f .  ;  admixture  of 
Celtic  elements,  333  f . 

lUyricum,  relation  to  Moesia,  i.  16 
n.  ;  erection  and  extent  of  prov- 
ince, 34  f. ;  rising  in,  43  ;  admin- 
istrative subdivision,  312,  318 ; 
excellence  of  Illyrian  soldiers,  371 
f . ;  Illyrian  emperors,  373. 

India,  commercial  intercourse  with, 
ii.  337  f . 

Indus,  region  of,  ii.  14  f. 

Inguiomerus,  i.  57,  66,  67. 

Insubres,  i.  98. 

lol  (Caesarea),  ii.  338,  349. 

Iran,  empire  of  :  Iranian  stocks  and 
rule,  ii.  1  f.  ;  religion,  10  f.  ;  Bac- 
tria  bulwark  of  Iran,  19.  See 
Persia. 

Irenaeus,  i.  110. 


Isauria,  i.  363  f.,  365. 
Isca,  camp  of,  i.l94,  310. 
Isidorus  (leader  of  "  herdsmen  "),  ii. 
285. 

Isidorus,  geographer,  ii.  43. 

Isis,  i.  304 ;  ii.  389. 

Istachr,  see  Persepolis. 

Isthmus  of  Corinth,  piercing  of,  i. 

319. 
Istria,  i.  317. 
Istros,  i.  359. 
Istropolis,  i.  15. 

Itala  version  of  Bible,  by  whom 

prepared,  ii.  375  n. 
Italica,  i.  73. 
Italicus,  i.  157. 

Italy,  northern  frontier  of,  i.  9  f.  ; 

ceases  to  be  military,  273. 
Ivernia,  i.  193,  198,  199. 
Izates  of  Adiabene,  ii  49,  181. 

Jahve,  ii.  174,  175,  183. 
Jamblichus,  ii.  83  w.,  135  w.,  143. 
Jannaeus  Alexander,  ii.  176. 
Jazyges,  see  lazyges. 
Jerome,  i.  110. 

Jerusalem,  standing  garrison,  ii.  203  ; 
destruction  of,  334,  337;  colony 
of  Hadrian,  343  n.    See  Judaea. 

Jews :  Jewish  traffic,  ii.  155  f.  ; 
Pariah  position  in  Rome,  155  f.  ; 
Diaspora,  155,  176  f. ;  at  Alexan- 
dria, 176  w.,  177  ;  at  Antioch,  177  ; 
in  Asia  Minor,  177  n.  ;  Greek  lan- 
guage compulsory,  178  f.  ;  reten- 
tion of  nationality,  179  f.  ;  self- 
governing  community  in  Alexan- 
dria, 180  ;  extent  of  the  Diaspora, 
180  f.  ;  proselytism,  180  f.  ;  Hel- 
lenising  tendencies,  181  ;  Jewish- 
Alexandrian  philosophy,  183 ; 
Neo- Judaism,  183  f .  ;  fellowship 
of,  as  a  body,  183  f.  ;  Philo,  184 ; 
Roman  government  and  Judaism, 
185  f.  ;  policy  of  Augustus,  186 
f.,  of  Tiberius,  187 ;  treatment 
in  the  West,  186,  and  in  the 
Bast,  188  f.  ;  treatment  by  Gaius, 
308  f.  ;  Jew-hunt  at  Alexan- 
dria, 308  f .  ;  statue  of  emperor 
in  the  Temple,  311  f.  ;  impression 
produced  by  the  attempt,  313; 
hatred  of  emperor-worship  de- 
picted in  the  Apocalypse,  313-315 
n.  ;  treatment  by  Claudius,  216  f.  ; 
preparations  for  the  insurrection, 
319  f.  ;  high-priestly  rule,  320  ; 
Zealots,  231  f .  ;  outbreak  in  Caes- 
area, 334  f.,  and  in  Jerusalem, 
335  f.  ;  struggle  of  parties,  336 
f .  ;  extension  of  the  war,  337 ;  war 


388 


Index. 


of  Vespasian,  228  f .  |  forces,  230 
n.  ;  first  and  second  campaigns, 
231 ;  Titus  against  Jerusalem, 
232;  task  of  assailants,  233  f .  ; 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  234 ; 
breaking  up  of  Jewish  central 
power,  235 ;  central  worship  set 
aside,  235  f.  ;  tribute  transferred 
to  Capitoline  Jupiter,  236  f.  ;  ter- 
ritory becomes  domain-land,  237 
n.  ;  further  treatment,  238  f. ; 
consequences  of  catastrophy,  239  ; 
Palestinian  Jews,  240  f .  ;  rising 
under  Trajan,  239 ;  under  Ha- 
drian, 248,  244  n.  ;  position  in  sec- 
ond and  third  centuries,  245  f.  ; 
toleration  of  worship,  245  ;  cor- 
porative unions,  246  f.  ;  patri- 
archs, 246  n.  ;  exemptions  from, 
and  obligations  to,  public  services, 
247;  circumcision  prohibited,  248 
n.  ;  altered  position  of  Jews  and 
altered  character  of  Judaism  in 
the  imperial  period,  249,  250. 

John  of  Grischala,  ii.  233. 

Joppa,  ii.  190  w.,  191. 

Josephus,  on  cave-towns  of  Hauran, 
ii.  160  ;  account  of  Titus's  council 
of  war,  236  n.  ;  value  of  state- 
ments in  the  preface  to  his  His- 
tory of  the  Jewish  War,  ii.  223  n. 

Jotapata,  ii.  231, 

Juba  I.,  ii.  335. 

Juba  II.,  ii.  339,  341,  368  n.  ;  his 
Collectanea,  ii.  42,  318  n. 

Judaea  :  distinction  between  Jewish 
land  and  Jewish  people,  ii.  174  ; 
priestly  rule  under  Seleucids,  174 
f .  ;  kingdom  of  Hasmonaeans,  175 ; 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  175 ; 
under  the  republic,  189;  Caesar's 
arrangements,  190  f .  ;  freedom 
from  dues,  190  n.\  Parthians  in 
Judaea,  193  f . ;  under  Herod,  196- 
198 ;  under  Archelaus,  199  f.  ; 
Roman  province,  200,  201  n.  ; 
provincial  organisation,  201  ;  mil- 
itary force  in,  202  ;  tribute,  202  f.  ; 
native  authorities,  203  ;  deference 
to  Jewish  scruples,  206  f.  ;  the 
Jewish  opposition,  207  f.  iSeealso 
Jews. 

Judaism,  see  Jews  and  Judaea. 
Judas,  the  Galilean,  ii.  214. 
Jugurtha,  war  with,  ii.  334. 
Julianus  defeats  Dacians  at  Tapae, 
i.  239. 

Julianus,  Emperor,  epigram  on  bar- 
ley-wine, i.  117;  reply  to  '^beard- 
mockers  "  of  Antioch,  ii.  147. 

Julii,  tomb  of,  at  S.  Remy,  i.  125. 


Jitridicus,  ii.  268  n. 
Jurisprudence,  studied  at  Berytus, 

ii.  143. 
Juthungi,  i.  175,  180. 

Kainepolis,  ii.  81  n. 
Kanata  and  Canatha,  ii.  159  n. 
Kanerku,  ii.  17,  18  7i. 
Kerykes,  i.  266,  304. 
King  of  kings,  ii.  13. 

Labeo,  Claudius,  i.  148. 
Labienus,  Quintus,  ii.  24. 
Lachares,  i.  307. 
Lactantius,  ii.  376, 
Lactora,  i.  105  n. 
Laetus,  ii.  85. 

Lagids,   government   of,    ii.   258 ; 

finance  of,  259  f .,  261. 
Lambaesis,  ii.  347. 
Lancia,  i.  72. 

Langobardi,  i.  41,  42,  158,  249. 
Laodicea,  i,  354,  390 ;  ii.  144. 
Larisa,  i.  323. 
Latifundia^  ii.  363. 
Latin  version  of  Bible,  ii.  374  n. 
Latobici  in  Carniola,  i.  217. 
Latro,  Marcus  Porcius,  i,  83. 
Lauriacum,  i.  216. 

Leagues  of  Greek  cities,   i.  280, 

286  71.  ;  diets,  286  f. 
Lentulus,  Gnaeus,   Dacian  war,  i. 

46. 

Leptis,  Great,  ii.  343,  355,  356,  357. 

Leuce  Come,  ii.  163,  304,  310,  313, 
317. 

Leuga^  i,  112, 

Lex  Julia  H.,  i.  12. 

Libanius,  description  of  Antioch, 
ii.  141  01. 

Library  of  Alexandria,  ii.  294  f. 

Libyans,  ii.  331,  345. 

Licinianus,  Valerius,  i.  83. 

Limes,  meaning  of,  i.  132  n.  ;  Limes 
Germaniae,  132  f .  ;  Upper  Ger- 
manic, 166  f.  ;  Raetiae,  168  f.  ; 
construction  of,  169,  214  ;  object 
and  effect  of  these  structures,  i, 
170-174. 

Lindum,  i.  198. 

Linen,  Syrian,  ii.  149,  150 ;  Egyp- 
tian, 277  n. 

Lingones,  i.  Ill,  150,  153 ;  testa- 
ment of  man  of  rank  among,  i. 
116. 

Logistae,  i.  382. 

Lollius,  Marcus,  defeat  of,  i.  26. 
Londinium,  i.  192,  196,  209. 
Longinus  (Pseudo-),  on  the  Sublime, 

ii.  182,  251. 
Lucanus,  i.  83. 


Index. 


389 


Lucian  of  Commagene,  ii.  143  ;  on 
the  Syrian  goddess,  146  n.  ;  (Pseu- 
do-),  parallel  between  Roman  and 
Athenian  life,  296  f. 

Lugii,  i.  43,  234,  239  n. 

Lngudunum,  i.  95-97. 

Lusitania,  i.  69,  70  ;  towns  with  bur- 
gess-rights in,  75. 

Lutetia,  described  by  Julian,  i.  118. 

Lycia,  i.  350  f.,  361 ;  Lycian  cities- 
league,  361. 

Lydius,  robber-chief,  i.  365. 

Lysimachia,  i.  328,  349  tc. 

Macedonia,  frontier  of,  i.  13  f .  ; 
extent  under  the  empire,  323  f .  ; 
nationalities,  324  f .  ;  Greek  polity, 
325  f .  ;  diet,  326 ;  economy,  roads 
and  levy,  327  f. ;  Macedonians  at 
Alexandria,  ii.  178,  179  n. 

Machaerus,  ii  234. 

Macrianus,  Fulvius,  ii.  111. 

Macrinus,  ii.  95. 

Mactaris,  ii.  369  n. 

Madaura,  ii.  372. 

Madeira,  dyeworks  at,  ii.  352,  368  n, 

Maeates,  i.  205. 

Magians,  ii.  11,  90. 

Magnesia  on  Maeander,  i.  353,  857. 

Malchus,  ii.  165. 

Mamaea,  ii.  96. 

Manahim,  ii.  326. 

Marble  quarries,  i.  317. 

Marcianopolis,  i.  334,  335. 

Marcomani,  i.  30 ;  retired  to  Bohe- 
mia, 33  ;  isolated,  35 ;  under 
Maroboduus,  41,  66  f.  ;  under  Ro- 
man clientship,  232  f.  ;  war  under 
Marcus  Aurelius,  248  f . ;  invasion 
of  Italy,  250 ;  pestilence,  250 ; 
progress  of  war,  251  ;  submission 
of  Quadi,  352  ;  terms  of,  253  ;  sec- 
ond war,  354 ;  results,  855  f .  ; 
conclusion  of  peace  by  Commo- 
dus,  355. 

Mareades,  ii.  109  n. 

Margiane  (Merv),  ii.  30. 

Marip.ba,  ii.  312,  318,  330. 

Mariamne,  ii.  193,  196. 

Mariccus,  i.  140. 

Marmarica,  ii.  343. 

Marnus,  temple  of,  ii.  145. 

Maroboduus,  i.  41,  48,  53,  66  f. 

Marsi,  i.  56. 

Martialis,  Valerius,  i.  83. 
Mascula,  ii.  347. 
Massada,  ii.  334. 
Massilia,  i.  85,  86,  93, 119. 
Massinissa,  ii.  333,  336. 
Mattiaci,  i.  37,  144,  161  n. 
Mauretania,  Roman  dependency,  ii. 


335 ;  two  Mauretanian  kingdoms, 
338  f.  ;  Roman  civilisation  in,  349 
f.  ;  Gaetulian  wars,  350 ;  incur- 
sions of  Moors  into  Spain,  353  n.  ; 
colonisation  of  Augustus,  362; 
large  landed  estates,  363  f. 
Mauri,  ii.  331. 

Maximianus,  Galerius,  ii.  124. 
Maximinus,  expedition  into  heart  of 

Germany,  i.    176;  Mesopotamia 

falls  to  Ardashir,  ii.  98. 
Maximus,  Terentius,  ii.  69. 
Mazices,  ii.  330,  353. 
Media,  ii.  4,  6,  10. 
Mediolanum,  i.  98. 
Mediomatrici,  i.  152. 
Megasthenes  sent  to  India,  ii.  143. 
Megistanes,  ii.  5  f. 
Meherdates,  ii.  49. 
Mela,  Pomponius,  i.  83. 
Menecrates,  physician,  i.  396  n. 
Menippus  of  Gadara,  ii.  143. 
Mentz,  see  Mogontiacum. 
Meroe,  ii.  298,  301. 
Mesembria,  i.  330. 
Mesene,  ii.  73. 

Mesopotamia,  ceded  to  Parthians,  ii. 
23 ;  Vologasus  in,  58 ;  occupied 
by  Trajan,  72  ;  revolt  of  Seleucia 
and  siege,  73  f .  ;  Roman  province, 
73,  75  f .  ;  evacuated  by  Hadrian, 
77  ;  again  Roman  province  under 
Sever  us,  84  ;  battle  of  Nisibis,  95  ; 
falls  to  Ardashir,  98  ;  reconquered 
by  Gordian,  98 ;  but  ceded  by 
Philippus,  99 ;  struggle  under 
Valerian,  108  ;  action  of  Odaena- 
thus,  113  ;  once  more  Roman  un- 
der Cams,  123  ?i. ;  invaded  by 
Narseh,  but  recovered  by  Diocle- 
tian, 124-127. 

Messalla,  Marcus  Valerius,  van- 
quishes the  Aquitanians,  i.  87. 

Minaeans,  ii.  310  n..  311  w.,  315, 
321. 

Minnagara,  ii.  15,  18  w. 
Minucius,  Felix,  ii.  376. 
Mithra,  worship  of,  ii.  137. 
Mithradates  I.,  ii.  5. 
Mithradates,   brother   of  Pharas- 

manes,  ii.  45,  48,  49  7i. ,  50. 
Mithradates  of  Pergamus,  i.  339, 

367. 

Moesia,  i.  14 ;  subjugation  by  Cras- 
sus,  15,  230 ;  relation  to  Illyri- 
cum,  16  ;  province,  25  ;  Latin 
civilisation  of,  230  ;  legionary 
camps,  231  n.,  237,  246;  Greek 
towns  in  lower,  334  f.  ;  mints  in, 
334  n. 

Mogontiacum,  i.  36,  54, 138, 160, 183. 


390 


Index. 


Mona,  i.  193,  194,  195,  197. 
Monachism  cradled  in  Egypt,  ii. 
290. 

Monaeses,  ii.  26,  28,  31,  33. 
Monobazus  of  Adiabene,  ii.  58. 
Montanus,  Votienus,  i.  121. 
Months,  Persian  names  of,  ii.  92  n.  ; 

Palmyrene,  104  n. 
Morini,  i.  87. 

Mosaic  pavements  in  Britain,  i.  211. 

Moselle  valley,  i.  125  f . 

Museum  of  Alexandria,  president  of 

the,  ii.  269  n.  ;  savants  of  the,  291 

f.,  294  n.,  295. 
Musulamii,  ii.  345,  346,  347  n. 
Muza,  ii.  314.  322,  325 
Muziris,  ii.  327. 

Myos  Hormos,  ii.  304,  313,  323, 
325. 

Nabata,  ii.  298,  306  w.,  307.  ^ 
Nabataea :  language  and  writing,  ii. 
159 ;  kingdom  of  Nabat,  161 ;  its 
extent  and  power,  162  f.  ;  Naba- 
taean  inscriptions,  162  w.,  163  n.  ; 
king  subject  to  the  Romans,  164 ; 
coins  of,  164  n.  ;  Greek  desig- 
nations of  magistrates,  166  f . ; 
merged  partly  in  Roman  prov- 
ince of  Arabia  by  Trajan,  166 ; 
worship,  167  ;  Phylarchs,  168. 
Naissus,  i.  268. 

Namara,  stronghold  of,  ii.  167,  172. 

Napoca,  i.  247. 

Narbo,  i.  85  f.,  93. 

Narcissus,  i.  190. 

Naristae,  i.  256. 

Narona,  i.  219. 

Narseh,  ii.  124  n. 

Nasamones,  ii.  344. 

Nattabutes,  ii.  347  n. 

Naucratis,  ii.  255  n.,  256  n. 

Nauplia,  i.  318. 

Nauportus,  i.  10,  215. 

Neapolis,  Flavia,  ii.  237. 

Necho,  ii.  303. 

Neckar,  region  of  the,  i.  164  f. 
Negrin,  oasis  of,  ii.  348. 
Neith,  sanctuary  of,  ii.  282. 
Nelcynda,  ii.  327. 

Nemausus,  i.  94 ;  temples,  115 ; 
coins,  119. 

Neocorate,  i.  375  f. 

Moi,  i.  383. 

Neo-Judaism,  ii.  292. 

Neo-Platonism,  ii.  138. 

Neo-Pythagoreanism,  ii.  292. 

Nero,  report  of  Aelianus  as  to  Moe- 
sia,  i.  235 ;  attempt  to  pierce  the 
Isthmus  of  Corinth,  319;  under 
Burrus  and  Seneca,  ii.  52  ;  aims  of 


the  government  in  the  East,  53, 
54 ;  Parthian  war  under,  58  f .  ; 
intended  Oriental  expedition,  65 
f . ;  Vologasus  on  Nero's  memory, 
66 ;  confiscations  in  Africa,  364 ; 
Pseudo-Nero,  ii.  64,  66,  69. 

Nicaea,  i.  265,  356. 

Nicanor,  Julius,  buys  back  Salamis, 
i.  301. 

Nicephorium,  ii.  82,  101,  124. 
Nicetes  of  Smyrna,  i.  395. 
Nicolaus  of  Damascus,  ii.  181  f. 
Nicomedia,  i.  265,  356,  373;  Dio's 

address  to,  357  n. 
Nicopolis,  Epirot,  i.  275,  320  f. 
Nicopolis  on  Haemus,  i.  260,  332. 
Nicopolis,  suburb  of  Alexandria,  ii. 

297. 

Niger,  Pescennius,  ii.  83,  84  n.,  129. 

Nile  :  Nile-flood,  ii.  274,  275  ;  Nile- 
route  for  commerce,  302. 

Nisibis,  ii.  72  f.,  82,  84  n.,  85,  125 ; 
battle  at,  95,  98. 

Nomes,  constitution  and  distinctive 
features  of,  ii.  255  f .  ;  agoranomy 
in,  256  f.,  260  ?i.  ;  presidents  of 
the  nomes,  269  f . 

Nonnus,  epic  of,  ii.  291  n. 

Noreia,  i.  215. 

Noricum,  province  of,  i.  21,  213 ; 
Italising  of,  214  f.  ;  military  ar- 
rangements, 215 ;  townships,  216. 

Novae,  i.  246. 

Novaesium,  i.  143-147,  153,  154. 
Novempopulana,  i.  214. 
Noviodunum,  i.  95  n. 
Noviomagus,  i.  129,  130. 
Nubians,  ii.  298,  301. 
Numidians,  ii.  331 ;   Numidia  in 

civil  wars,  334 ;  a  province,  334, 

337. 

Obodas,  ii.  164,  316. 

Octavia,  ii.  29,  35. 

Odaenathus,  Septimius,  ii.  105  n. 

Odaenathus,  king  of  Palmyra,  ii. 
112  n.  ;  campaign  against  Per- 
sians, 113  f.  ;  assassination,  115  n. 

Odessus,  i.  15,  330. 

Odrysae,  i.  14,  227  f.,  329,  332  n. 

Oea,  ii.  343,  356. 

Oescus,  i.  231,  335. 

Ogmius,  i.  113. 

Olbia,  i.  258,  262,  331,  336  w., 
337  n. 

Olympic  games,  i.  312  f. 
Ombites,  ii.  283,  285. 
Onias,  temple  of,  closed,  ii.  236. 
Ordovici,  i.  193,  197. 
Orodes,  ii.  23,  24,  25  f.,  46. 
Orontes  valley,  ii.  145,  154. 


Index. 


391 


Osicerda,  coin  of,  i.  76  n. 
Osiris  worship,  ii.  288  n. 
Osrhoene,  ii.  95. 
Otho,  defeat  of,  i.  139. 
Oxus,  ii.  89. 

Pacorus  I.,  son  of  Orodes,  ii.  23, 
24,  25. 

Pacorus,  Parthian  king  in  time  of 

Trajan,  ii.  70  n. 
Paetus,  Lucius  Caesennius,  ii.  59 

f.  ;  capitulation  at  Rhandeia,  61 

f . ;  recalled,  62. 
Pahlavi  language,  ii.  12,  91. 
Palikars,  i.  225. 

Palma,  Aulus  Cornelius,  ii.  166. 

Palmyra,  ii.  99  f.  ;  predatory  ex- 
pedition of  Antonius,  100 ;  mili- 
tary independence,  100,  101  n.  ; 
distinctive  position,  101  f.  ;  ad- 
ministrative independence,  103 
f.  ;  language,  103  f.  ;  votive  in- 
scriptions, 103  n.  ;  magistrates, 
104  f.;  "Headman,"  104;  oflfi- 
cial  titles,  104  n.  ;  customs-dis- 
trict, 106  n.  ;  commercial  posi- 
tion, 106 ;  under  Odaenathus, 
112  f. ;  under  Zenobia,  115-120  ; 
destruction,  121  f.  ;  chronology, 
121  n. 

Pamphylia,  i.  351  ;  coast  towns, 
361  f.  ;  earlier  rulers,  361  ;  as- 
signed to  governor  of  its  own,  362. 

Panhellenism,  i.  273  f.  ;  Panhel- 
lenes,  274  ;  Panhellenion  of  Ha- 
drian, 288  n.  ;  letters  of  recom- 
mendation, 289  n.  ;  Olympia, 
312  f. 

Pannonia,  province,  i.  25 ;  first 
Pannonian  war,  25  f .  ;  Dalmatio- 
Pannonian  rising,  43  f.  ;  military 
arrangements,  222  f.  ;  urban  de- 
velopment, 224  f . ;  camps  ad- 
vanced, 238 ;  prosperity,  248. 

Panopeus,  i.  314. 

Panopolis,  ii.  255. 

Panticapaeum,  i.  331,  338,  339,  341 
71.,  343  f.,  346. 

Papak,  ii.  92. 

Papyrus,  ii.  277. 

Paraetonium,  ii.  255  n. 

Paropanisus,  ii.  15. 

Parthamaspates,  ii.  74. 

Parthia  and  Parthians,  rule  of,  ii. 
2  f.  ;  Parthians  Scythian,  3  ;  re- 
gal office,  5 ;  Megistanes,  5,  6 
n. ;  satraps,  7 ;  as  vassals,  7 ; 
Greek  towns,  8;  counterpart  to 
Roman  empire,  9 ;  language,  12 
f.  ;  coinage,  12 ;  extent  of  em- 
pire, 13  f.  ;  wars  between  Par- 


thians and  Scythians,  19;  Ro- 
mano-Parthian frontier-region, 
20  ;  during  the  civil  wars,  22  ;  at 
Philippi,  23  ;  in  Syria  and  Asia 
Minor,  24 ;  [Judaea,  193  f.]  ; 
seizure  of  Armenia,  48  n. ;  occu- 
pation of  Armenia,  50  f . ;  war 
under  Nero,  59  f.  ;  the  East  un- 
der the  Flavians,  65  f.  ;  coinage 
of  pretenders,  69  n.  ;  war  under 
Trajan,  70  f.  ;  his  oriental  policy, 
75  f.  ;  reaction  under  Hadria.n 
and  Pius,  76  f.  ;  war  under  Mar- 
cus and  Verus,  80  f.  ;  wars  un- 
der Severus,  83  f.  ;  wars  of  Sev- 
erus  Antoninus,  93 ;  beginning 
of  Sassanid  dynasty,  87  f.,  96; 
Partho-Indian  empire,  ii.  16  £., 
18  n. 

Parthini,  i.  11. 

Parthomasiris,  ii.  70  n.^  72. 

Patrae,  i.  282  f.,  317  f.,  322. 

Patriarchs  of  Jews,  ii.  247  n. 

Patrocles,  Admiral,  exploring  Cas- 
pian, ii.  142. 

Patronatus^  contracts  of,  ii.  359  n. 

Paul  at  Damascus,  chronology  of,  ii. 
162  n. 

Paullinus,  Gaius  Suetonius,  i.  194  f., 

197;  ii.  341-352. 
Pedigrees,  i.  311  f. 
Pentapolis,  Pontic,  i.  334  f .  ;  coinage 

of,  335. 

Pergamus,  i.  353,  357,  373,  379. 

Persepolis  (Istachr),  ii.  90. 

Persian  empire,  extent  of,  ii.  1  f. ; 
see  Sassanids. 

Persis,  viceroys  of,  how  named,  ii.  5 
n. ;  king  of,  7  ;  royal  dynasty,  Sas- 
sanids, 87. 

Pertinax,  Helvius,  i.  252. 

Petra,  client-state  of  Nabat,  ii.  69 ; 
residence  of  king,  161 ;  traffic- 
route,  165  n. ,  313  ;  constitution 
under  Hadrian,  170 ;  structures 
of,  170  ;  rock-tombs,  171. 

Petronius,  Gaius,  governor  of 
Egypt,  ii.  299. 

Petronius,  Publius,  governor  of  Syr- 
ia, ii.  211. 

Pessinus,  i.  369,  370  n. 

Phanagoria,  i.  341,  346. 

Pharasmanes  (I.),  ii.  45,  50,  56. 

Pharasmanes  (H.),  ii.  79. 

Pharisees,  ii.  176,  199,  204,  226. 

Pharnaces,  i.  338,  367. 

Pharnapates,  ii.  25. 

Pharsalus,  i.  323  n. 

Phasael,  ii.  192  f. 

Philadelphia  (in  Lydia),  i.  390. 

Philadelphia  (in  Syria),  ii.  159. 


392 


Index, 


Philae,  ii.  299,  302. 
Philhellenism  of  the  Romans,!. 300  f. 
Philippi,  i.  326,  328. 
Philippopolis,  i.  229,  251,  282,  329, 
332. 

Philippus,  Marcus  Julius,  pro- 
claimed emperor,  ii.  98  f.;  cession 
of  Euphrates  frontier,  99. 

Philo,  Neo- Judaism,  ii.  184;  depu- 
tations to  Gains,  210 ;  silence  ac- 
counted for,  213  n. 

Phoenician  language  in  Africa,  ii 
355  f.,  358  n. 

Phraataces,  ii.  42. 

Phraates,  ii.  25,  31  f.,  36,  40. 

Phrygia,  Great,  i.  352 ;  language, 
355 ;  coins  and  inscriptions,  355. 

Phy larch  s,  ii.  168,  173  n. 

Picti,  i.  206. 

Piracy  in  Black  Sea,  i.  262  f . ;  expe- 
ditions to  Asia  Minor  and  Greece, 
264  f . ;  in  Pisidia,  362  f . ;  in  Red 
Sea,  ii.  324. 

Piraeus,  i.  302,  318. 

Pirustae,  i.  46. 

Pisidia,  independence,  i.  362;  sub- 
dued by  Augustus,  363;  Pisidian 
colonies,  364 ;  brigandage  in,  380. 

Piso,  Lucius,  Thracian  war,  i.  27  f. 

Pityus,  i.  262,  263  f. 

Pius,  Cestius,  i.  395. 

Plataeae,  i.  289  n. 

Plautius,  Aulus,  i.  190,  192. 

Plotinus,  ii.  138. 

Plutarch,  knowledge  of  Latin,  i. 
295 ;  account  of  his  countrymen, 
295;  on  population  of  Greece, 
291 ;  character  of,  297  f . ;  view  of 
municipal  duties,  310,  314. 

Poetovio,  i.  21,  26,  222,  224. 

Polemon,  i.  340  ;  ii.  26,  37. 

Polis  and  Hiomos,  ii.  257. 

Politarchs,  i.  325  n. 

PoUio,  Coelius,  ii.  51. 

Pompeianus,  Tiberius  Claudius,  i. 
252. 

Pompeiopolis,  ii.  110. 
Pontus,  province  organised  by  Pom- 
eius,  i.  358  f. ;  annexation  of 
ingdom  of,  ii.  65. 
Poppaea  Sabina,  ii.  181. 
Porphyrins,  ii.  138. 
Portus,  mariners'  guild  at,  ii.  279  n. 
Posidonius  of  Apamea,  quoted,  ii. 
145. 

Postumus,  Marcus  Cassianius  La- 
tinius,  proclaimed  emperor  in 
Gaul,  i.  178 ;  takes  Cologne,  179 ; 
falsifications  of  the  Imperial  Bi- 
ographies in  his  case,  178  n. 

Potaissa,  i.  247. 


Praaspa,  ii.  31. 

Praefectus,  ii.  253  n.,  268,  268  n. 

Prasutagus,  i.  191. 

Premis,  ii.  299. 

Priests  in  Asia  Minor,  i.  377. 

Princeps  :  position  as  to  Egypt,  ii. 

253  f.  ;  princeps  et  undecim  pru 
tnus,  366  n. 

Prisons,  Statins,  ii.  80. 

Proaeresios,  ii.  291  n. 

Probus,  opens  vine-culture  to  pro- 
vincials, i.  118 ;  resumes  aggres- 
sive against  the  Germans,  181  f.  ; 
transfers  Bastarnae  to  Roman 
bank,  2^9 ;  subdues  Lydus  in 
Isauria,  365  ;  delivers  Egypt  from 
Palmyrenes,  ii.  116,  271,  301  ;  re- 
stores water-works  on  Nile,  275. 

Provincia,  alleged  use  of  term,  ii. 

254  w. 
Prucheion,  ii.  272. 
Pselchis,  ii.  299. 
Pseudo-Nero,  ii.  66,  69  f. 
Ptolemaeus  Philadelphus,   son  of 

Antonius,  ii.  27. 
Ptolemaeus  Philadelphus,  ii.  304. 
Ptolemaeus,  king  of  Mauretania,  ii. 

340  f. 

Ptolemais,  "Greek "city  in  Egypt, 

ii.  256,  257. 
Ptolemais  "for  the  Chase,"  on  Red 

Sea,  ii.  304. 
Ptolemies,  court  of  the,  ii,  266  f. 
Punic  inscriptions,  ii.  355  n. 
Punt,  ii.  309  n. 

Purple  dyeworks,  Syrian,  ii.  150. 
Puteoli,  called  Little  Delos,  ii.  151  n. 

QuADi,  i,  232,  248,  250,  252,  254, 
257. 

Quadratus,  Ummidius,  ii.  57  f.,  220. 
Quarries,  Egyptian,  ii.  278. 
Quietus,  Fulvius,  ii.  111. 
Quietus,  Lusius,  i.  240 ;  ii.  74,  242, 
351  M. 

Quinquegentiani,  ii  354  n. 
Quintilianus,  Marcus  Fabius,  i.  84. 
Quirinius,  Publius  Sulpicius,  i.  364  ; 
ii.  148,  204,  343. 

Raetia,  affinity  of  Raeti,  i.  213 ; 
subjugation,  19 ;  organisation,  20 
f . ;  war  in  Raetia,  175  ;  late  civili- 
sation, 213 ;  military  arrange- 
ments, 214  ;  Raetian  limes,  214. 

Ratiaria,  i.  231. 

Religion  m  Spain,  i.  82;  in  Gaul, 
112  f.;  in  Britain,  209;  m  Greece, 
304  ;  in  Asia  Minor,  379 ;  in  Iran, 
ii.  10  f.;  in  Syria,  134:  in  Egypt, 
388. 


Index,  393 


Resaina,  battle  at,  ii,  98,  102, 
Rhadamistus,  ii.  50  f. 
Rhagae,  ii.  4,  30. 

Rhandeia,  capitulation  of,  ii.  60, 

61  f. 
Rhapta,  ii.  314. 

Rhetoric,  professors  of,  at  Treves, 
i.  97  /I.;  professorship  of  Greek, 
at  Rome,  ii.  395. 

Rhetors  in  Alexandria,  ii.  287  n, 

Rhine,  boundary,  i.  28 ;  camps  on 
left  bank,  35  f. ;  positions  on  right 
bank,  37  f.;  canal  to  Zuyder-Zee, 
31,  38  ;  dyke  between  Ems  and 
Lower  Rhine,  39  ;  Rhine-army  as 
bearing  on  Gaul,  88 ;  Rhine  fleet, 
129 ;  army  of  Lower  Rhine,  159  n. 

Rhodians,  Dio's  address  to,  i.  298  f,, 
309. 

Rhoemetalces,  i.  44,  227  f. 

Riff'  in  Morocco,  ii.  350,  353. 

Roads  in  Spain,  i.  81 ;  in  Gaul,  119 
f . ;  road  measurement  in  Gaul  and 
Germany,  111  f.;  in  Britain,  209; 
in  Greece,  318 ;  in  Asia  Minor, 
388 ;  in  Egypt,  ii.  323 ;  in  Africa, 
370. 

Roman  empire,  character  of  its  his- 
tory as  compared  with  that  of  the 
republic,  i.  3  f . ;  value  of  authori- 
ties for  it,  4 ;  nature  of  task  as- 
signed to  it,  5  f.;  object  and  lim- 
its of  the  present  work,  4-6  ;  its 
divisions,  6 ;  northern  frontier  of, 
9f. 

Roxolani,  i.  236,  257. 

Sabaeans,  ii.  173,  311,  315. 
Sabinus,  Julius,  i.  149,  150. 
Sabiuus,  Oppius,  i.  239. 
Sacae,  ii.  15 ;  Sacastane,  16  ;  empire 

on  Indus,  18,  19  n. 
Sacrovir,  Julius,  rising  of,  i.  88  f. 
Sadducees,  ii.  175. 
Sagalassus,  i.  365. 
Salabus,  ii.  352. 

Salassi,  i.  18  ;  extirpated  by  Augus- 

Salice  (Ceylon),  ii.  327. 

Salonae,  i.  219,  321,  351. 

Samaria,  ii.  203. 

Samaritans,  ii.  174. 

Sanabarus,  ii.  18  n. 

Sapor,  ii.  98;  title  and  policy  of 

conquest,  107  f. 
Sapphar,  ii.  321. 
Saracens,  ii.  173  f. 
Sarapis,  ii.  388,  289  n.,  392;  festival 

of,  ii.  281  n. 
Sardes,  i.  354,  357. 
Sarmatae,  ii.  46. 


Sarmizegetusa,  i.  240,  247. 

Sassanids,  ii.  3  f . ;  official  historiog- 
raphy, 3  n.\  legend  of,  87,  91  f.; 
dynasty  of  Persis,  87  ;  extent  of 
Sassanid  kingdom,  88;  distinc- 
tion between  Sassanid  and  Arsacid 
kingdoms,  88  n.\  official  titles  of 
ruler,  89  n.\  church  and  priest- 
hood, 90  f.;  languages  of  the 
country  under,  91  f.;  new  Per- 
sians and  Romans,  93  ;  strike  gold 
pieces,  93  f.;  chronology,  95  n.\ 
East  forfeited  to  Persians,  109. 

Satraps,  ii.  7. 

Saturninus,  Gaius  Sentius,  i.  42. 
Saturninus,  Lucius  Antonius,  i.  163. 
Sauromates,  i.  337,  340  n. ,  344  n. 
Savaria,  i.  233. 
Saxa,  Decidius,  ii.  34. 
Saxons,  i  65  f.,  181. 
Scapula,  Publius  Ostorius,  i.  194. 
Scarbantia,  i.  334. 

Scaurus,  Marcus,  expedition  against 

Nabataeans,  ii.  163  f. 
Scironian  cliffs,  i.  319. 
Scodra,  i.  317. 
Scordisci,  i.  318  f.,  325. 
Scoti,  i.  206. 

Scythians,  i.  258,  262,  363  n.,  337; 

(Asiatic),  ii.  15,  16,  19. 
Segestes,  i.  47,  51,  56,  67. 
Segusiavi,  i.  95  n. ,  99  n. 
Sejanus,  ii.  187  7i. 

Seleucia  (in  western  Cilicia),  i.  361. 
Seleucia  Siderus  (in  Pisidia),  i.  364, 
365. 

Seleucia  (in  Syria),  ii.  138  n.^  140. 
Seleucia  (on  the  Tigris),  ii.  9,  11, 

46,  47,  48,  73,  82,  85,  91,  123,  138. 
Seleucids,  ii.  3  al. 
Seleucus,  saying  of,  ii.  266, 

Selga,  i.  365,  389.       ^^-^^^  ^ . 

' '  Seminumidians   and"^  Semigaetu- 

lians,"  ii.  371. 
Semnones,  i.  158,  175. 
Senate  and  senators  excluded  from 

Egypt,  ii.  253  n. 
Seneca,  M.   Annaeus  and  L.  An- 

naeus,  i.  83. 
Septuagint,  ii.  178. 
Sequani,  i.  88,  108,  150. 
Seres,  ii.  328. 

Servianus,  letter  (of  Hadrian  ?)  to, 

ii.  279  n. 
Severianus,  ii.  80. 

Severus,  Alexander;  see  Alexander 
Severus. 

Severus  Antoninus  ;  see  Caracalla. 
Severus,  Septimius,  Wall  of  Severus, 

i.  203  n. ;  conflicts  in  Britain,  305 ; 

death  at  Eburacum,   305,  292; 


394 


Index. 


Parthian  wars  under,  ii.  83  f.; 

title  of  Parthicus^  84  n.\  partition 

of  Syria,  129. 
Severus,  Sextus  Julius,  ii.  244  f. 
Sicca,  ii.  86"3. 
Sido,  i.  234,  248. 

Silk.  Chinese,  ii.  328  ;  silk  of  Bery- 

tus,  150  f. 
Silures,  i.  193  f.,  194,197. 
Silvanus  Aelianus,  Tiberius  Plau- 

tius,  i.  235. 
Simon,  son  of  Gioras,  ii.  233. 
Singidunum,  i.  231,  347. 
Sinnaces,  ii.  46. 
Sinope,  i.  359  f. 
Siraci,  i.  343  n.,  345,  346. 
Siscia,  i.  11,  222. 
Sittius,  Publius,  ii.  338  w.,  362. 
Skipetars,  i.  216. 

Slaves,  treatment  of,  in  Greece,  i. 
296;  traffic  in,  through  Galatia, 
390. 

Smyrna,  i.  353  f.,  357,  375,  384; 

Jews  at,  ii.  177  n. 
Sohaemus  of  Hemesa,  ii.  53. 
Sohaemus,  king  of  Armenia,  ii.  81 

n.,  137. 
Sophene,  ii.  125. 

Sophists,  addresses  of,  i.  393  f.; 
Asia  Minor  takes  the  lead  in,  395. 

Sostra,  dam  at,  ii.  110. 

Spain,  conclusion  of  its  conquest,  i. 
69  f . ;  visit  of  Augustus  to  organ- 
ise, 70;  triumphs  over,  69  n.^  70; 
warfare  in  north  of  Spain,  69  f.; 
military  organisation  and  distri- 
bution of  legions,  71  n.,  73;  in- 
cursions of  Moors,  73;  introduc- 
tion of  Italian  municipal  law,  74 ; 
diffusion  of  Roman  language,  77  ; 
cantons,  78 ;  broken  up,  79  ;  levy, 
80  ;  traffic  and  roads,  80  f . ;  re- 
ligious rites,  82;  Spaniards  in 
Latin  literature,  82-84. 

Sparta,  treatment  of,  i.  280  f. 

Statianus,  Oppius,  ii.  31. 

Statues,  honorary,  i.  316  n. 

Stobi,  i.  326. 

Successianus,  i.  264. 

Suebi,  i.  65  f.,  223,  232,  234,  239. 

Sufetes,  ii.  358,  360  n. 

Sugambri,  i.  29  f.,  134;  probably = 
Cugerni,  134  n. 

Sulis,  i.  192,  209. 

Suren,  ii.  6,  90. 

Syene,  ii.  278,  304. 

Syllaeos,  ii.  316  n. 

Symmachus,  i.  123. 

Syiihedrion  of  Jerusalem,  constitu- 
tion and  jurisdiction,  ii.  203  f.; 
disappears,  235. 


Synnada,  i.  353. 

Synoekismos^  i.  320  f. 

Syria,  conquest  of,  ii.  127;  boun- 
daries of  territory,  128  ;  provincial 
government,  and  its  changes,  128 
f.;  partition  into  Coele-Syria  and 
Syro-Phoenicia,  129  ;  troops  and 
quarters  of  legions,  67  n. ,  129  n. ; 
inferiority  in  discipline,  71  n., 
130  1;  Hellenismg  of,  131  1; 
Syria = New  Macedonia,  132  ;  con- 
tinuance of  native  language,  133 
f . ;  Macedonian  native  and  Greek 
names,  132  f.;  worship,  134;  later 
Syriac  literature,  136  n.;  Syro- 
Hellenic  mixed  culture,  136;  minor 
Syrian  authorship,  142  f. ;  epigram 
and  feuilleton,  143  f . ;  culture  of 
soil,  148  f . ;  wines  of,  149 ;  manu- 
factures, 149;  commerce,  150  f.; 
ship-captains,  151  n.  ;  Syrian 
factories  abroad,  151  f.;  Syrian 
merchants  in  the  West,^  153  n.; 
Syro-Christian  Diaspora,^  152  n.\ 
wealth  of  Syrian  traders,  153 ; 
country  houses  in  valley  of  Oron- 
tes,  154 ;  military  arrangements 
after  63  A.D.,  229  n. 

Syria,  Eastern,  conditions  of  culture 
in,  ii.  157  f.;  Greek  influence  in, 
159  f.;  inhabitants  of  Arabian 
stock,  159  ;  Pompeius  strengthens 
Greek  urban  system,  159;  civili- 
sation under  Roman  rule,  168  f.; 
agriculture  and  commerce,  169 ; 
buildings,  170 ;  south  Arabian  im- 
migration, 172. 

Syrtis,  Great,  ii.  333,  344. 

Tacapae,  ii.  342. 

Tacfarinas,  ii.  341,  343,  345,  346. 

Tacitus,  dialogue  on  oratory,  i.  122 ; 
picture  of  the  Germans,  183  ;  nar- 
rative of  war  in  Britain  criticised, 
197  n. 

Tadmor,  ii.  99  7i. 

Talmud,  beginnings  of,  ii.  238,  251. 
Tanais,  i.  342  346. 
Tarraco,  i.  71. 

Tarraconensis,  towns  in  the,  i.  75. 
Tarsus,  ii.  110,  133. 
Taunus,  i.  38,  160. 
Tava  (Tay),  i.  199,  203. 
Tavium,  i.  369,  370  n. 
Taxila,  ii.  14  n. 

Teachers  and  salaries  at  Teos,  i.  393. 
Teima,  description  of,  ii.  310  n. 
Temple-tribute,  Jewish,  ii.  184, 187; 

temple-screen,  tablets  of  warning 

on,  205  n. 
Tencteri,  i.  29,  30,  134,  144,  151  f . 


Index. 


396 


Tenelium,  ii.  365  n. 
Teos,  decree  as  to  instruction,  i. 
393. 

TertuUian,  ii.  373,  376. 
Tetrarch,  title  of,  ii.  192  n. 
Tetricus  submits  to  Aurelian,  i.  180. 
Teutoburg  forest,  i.  59,  61. 
Thaema,  ii.  162  n. 
Thagaste,  ii.  372. 
Tiiamugadi,  ii.  347.  r 
Themistius,  i.  370. 
Theocracy,  Mosaic,  ii.  174. 
Thessalonica,  i.  326  f.,  327. 
Thessaly,  i.  322  f.;  diet  in  Larisa, 
323. 

Tlieudas,  ii.  222. 

Theudosia,  i.  341. 

Theveste,  ii.  345,  348,  370. 

Thrace  :  d^rnasts  and  tribes,  i.  16  f.; 
vassal-princes,  16 ;  war  of  Piso, 
27  f.,  227  ;  Thracian  stock,  224  f.; 
language,  225 ;  worship,  22.5 ;  prin- 
cipate,  226  f.;  province,  228  f.; 
rising  under  Tiberius,  229;  gar- 
rison and  roads,  229  f . ;  Hellenism 
and  Romanism  in,  230  f.;  Hellen- 
ism imported,  328,  329  ;  Philip 
and  Alexander,  328  ;  Lysimachus, 
328 ;  empire  of  Tylis,  329  ;  later 
Macedonian  rulers,  329;  Roman 
province,  330  f . ;  Greek  towns  in, 
330;  strategies  of,  332  n.\  town- 
ships receiving  civic  rights  from 
Trajan,  332;  "Thracian  shore," 
i.  230. 

Thubursicum,  ii.  366. 

Thubusuctu,  ii.  354  n. 

Tiberias,  ii.  199. 

Tiberius,  assists  Drusus  in  Raetia, 
i.  19;  first  Pannonian  war,  25  f., 
222  ;  German  war,  34  f . ;  resigns 
command  on  Rhine,  40  ;  recon- 
ciliation with  Augustus,  40; 
resumes  command,  40;  further 
campaigns  in  Germany,  40  f . ;  ex- 
pedition to  North  Sea,  41 ;  cam- 
paign against  Maroboduus,  41  f. ; 
return  to  lUyricum,  44  f.;  again 
on  Rhine  after  defeat  of  Varus, 
53  f.;  recall  of  Germanicus,  60; 
German  policy,  60;  motives  for 
changing  it,  61-65 ;  Gallic  rising 
under,  87;  Frisian  rising,  135; 
road-making  in  Dalmatia,  220 ; 
procures  recognition  for  Vannius, 
233 ;  Dacians  under,  235 ;  takes 
Greece  into  his  own  power,  299 ; 
small  number  of  statues,  316  f.; 
leads  force  into  Armenia,  ii.  40  f.; 
again  commissioned  to  the  East, 
but  declines,  41 ;  mission  of  Ger- 


manicus to  the  East,  43  f.;  Arta- 
banus  and  Tiberius,  44  f.;  mission 
of  Vitellius,  45  f  ;  movement 
against  Aretas,  165  ;  treatment  of 
the  Jews,  186 ;  attitude  towards 
Jewish  customs,  205,  206 ;  war 
against  Tacfarinas,  345  f . 

Tigranes,  brother  of  Artaxias,  in- 
vested with  Armenia  by  Tiberius, 
ii.  40,  41. 

Tigranes,  installed  in  Armenia  by 
Corbulo,  ii.  57  f. 

Tigranocerta,  ii.  51,  57. 

Tigris,  boundary  of,  ii.  75,  125  n. 

Timagenes,  ii.  116. 

Timarchides,  Claudius,  i.  307  n. 

Timesitheus,  Furius,  ii.  98. 

Tingi,  i.  74;  ii.  340  f .,  341  f.,  350,  361. 

Tiridates,  proclaimed  king  of  Par- 
thia  under  Augustus,  ii.  36,  38, 
40. 

Tiridates  set  up  as  king  of  Parthia 
in  opposition  to  Artabanus,  un- 
der Tiberius,  and  superseded,  ii. 
47. 

Tiridates  I.,  king  of  Armenia, 
brother  of  Vologasus  I.,  ii.  55, 
57,  58,  62,  63,  64  [and  ii.  11]. 

Tiridates  II. ,  king  of  Armenia  un- 
der Caracalla,  ii.  94. 

Tiridates,  king  of  Armenia  under 
Sapor,  ii.  108. 

Titus,  against  Jerusalem,  ii.  213 
f.;  Arch  of,  232  ;  refuses  to  eject 
Jews  at  Antioch,  238. 

Togodumnus,  i.  191  f. 

Tombstones,  Gallic,  i.  125. 

Tomis,  i.  15,  246  w.,  331,  334; 
Ovid's  description  of,  335 ;  Mar- 
iners' guild,  336  n. 

Town- districts  in  Egypt,  ii.  256  f. 

Trachonitis,  ii.  157  ;  see  Hauran. 

Trajanus,  M.  Ulpius  :  military  road 
from  Mentz  towards  Offenburg, 
i.  166 ;  settlements  in  Upper  Ger- 
many, 173  ;  mission  thither,  174 
?i.;  Dacian  war,  240  f.  ;  second 
Dacian  war,  241  f.  ;  column  in 
Rome,  242  f .  ;  confers  civic 
rights  on  Thracian  townships, 
335 ;  Parthian  war,  ii.  69  f.  ; 
death,  74  f.;  triumph  accorded 
after  death,  74 ;  Oriental  policy, 
75  f.  ;  erects  province  of  Arabia, 
156  ;  Jewish  rising  under,  240  f. ; 
enlargement  of  Egyptian  canal, 
324  f. 

Transport-ship,  Egyptian,  ii.  278, 
279  n. 

Trapezus,  i.  265,  359;  ii.  37,  57. 
Trebelli^nus  Rufus,  Titus,  i.  228. 


396 


Index. 


Treveri,  i.  '87,  101,  102,  111,  148, 
149,  150,  152. 

Treves,  primacy  in  Belgica,  i.  97  ; 
subsequently  capital  of  Gaul,  89 ; 
receives  Italian  rights,  107. 

Triballi,  i.  14. 

Triboci,  i.  127,  152,  159. 

Trinovantes,  i.  185,  186  w.,  196. 

Tripolis,  ii.  343  f. 

Trismegistus,  Hermes,  ii.  283,  289. 

Troesmis,  i.  246. 

Trogodytes,  ii.  305,  310. 

Trogus  Pompeius,  historian  of  Hel- 
lenic type,  i.  120. 

Trumpilini,  i.  18. 

Tungri,  i.  144, 148. 

Turan,  ii.  12,  19,  48. 

Turbo,  Quintus  Marcius,  ii.  242. 

Tyana,  i.  360;  ii.  118. 

Tylis,  empire  of,  i.  328. 

Tyra,  i.  245,  258,  262,  264,  331, 
336. 

Tyrian  factories  in  Italy,  ii.  151  n. 

Ubii,  i.  25,  39,  106,  107  f..  Ill, 
127,  128,  130,  146,  148;  Roman 
town  of,  182. 

Ulpia  Noviomagus,  i.  183. 

Ulpia  Traiana,  i.  183. 

Universe,  anonymous  treatise  on, 
ii.  182. 

Usipes,  i.  29,  30,  56,  134,  144,  162. 
Utica,  ii.  361. 

Vaballathus,  ii.  115  n.,  117. 

Valerianus,  Publius  Licinius,  con- 
quers Aemilianus,  i.  261 ;  pirat- 
ical expedition  of  Goths,  263  f. ; 
character,  267  ;  ii.  108  ;  capture 
by  the  Persians,  108  rt.,  109  n. 

Vangio,  i.  234,  248. 

Vannius,  i.  233,  235,  248. 

Vardanes,  ii.  48,  49. 

Varus,  Publius  Quintilius,  charac- 
ter, i.  49  ;  defeat  and  death,  50-52 ; 
locality  of  the  disaster,  52  n.  ; 
governor  of  Syria,  ii.  199. 

Vaseones,  i.  72. 

Vatinius,  Publius,  i.  97. 

Veleda,  i.  151, 153,  157. 

Veneti,  i.  217. 

Verulamium,  i.  196,  210. 

Verus,  Lucius,  character  of,  i.  251 
f. ;  in  the  East,  ii.  80. 

Verus,  Martius,  ii.  80. 

Vespasianus  :  municipal  organisa- 
tion in  Spain,  i.  75,  79;  pro- 
claimed as  emperor,  139 ;  insti- 
gation of  Civilis,  141  f . ;  conse- 
quences of  Batavian  war,  154  f . ; 


takes  possession  of  "  Helvetian 
desert,"  165 ;  pushes  forward 
camps  on  the  Danube,  237  ; 
Eastern  arrangements,  ii.  66  f. ; 
Jewish  war,  228  f.  ;  possessing 
himself  of  Rome  through  corn- 
fleet,  274  ;  nicknamed  the  "  sar- 
dine-dealer "  and  "six-farthing- 
man,"  286. 

Vestinus,  L.  Julius,  ii.  296  n. 

Vetera  (Castra),  i.  36,  54,  128,  145, 
149. 

Via  Augusta  in  Spain,  i.  81 :  in 
Gaul,  119  f. 

Via  Claudia,  i.  23. 

Via  Egnatia,  i.  327. 

Victorinus,  Gains  Aufidius,  i.  249. 

Vienna,  i.  94,  95  w,,  98. 

Viminacium,  i.  230,  231,  247,  261. 

Vindelici,  i.  19,  213. 

Vindex,  rising  of,  i.  89,  139  f, 

Vindex,  Marcus  Macrinius,  i.  253. 

Vindobona,  i.  224. 

Vindonissa,  i.  21,  129,  152,  172. 

Vine-culture  in  Gaul,  i.  117  f.;  re- 
stricted by  Domitian,  118;  on 
Moselle,  118. 

Viroconium,  camp  of,  i.  1 93,  197. 

Vitellius,  Lucius,  i.  139,  140, 141 ;  ii. 
45,  46,  47,  232. 

Vocula,  yiUius,  i.  144,  145-147,  149. 

Volcae,  i.  94  f.,  100. 

Vologasias,  ii.  50,  69,  106  n. 

Vologasus  I.,  ii.  50,  52,  55,  58  f., 
60,  66,  67,  69. 

Vologasus  IV.,  ii.  80. 

Vologasus  v.,  ii.  83  f. 

Vonones,  ii.  43,  44. 

Vorodes,  Septimius,  ii.  113  n. 

Weaving  in  Asia  Minor,  i.  389. 
Wines,  Gallic,  i.  118. 

Xenophon,  of  Cos,  physician,  i. 
391  n. 

Zabdas,  ii.  113  n.,  116, 119. 

Zaitha,  ii.  98. 

Zarai,  tariff  of,  ii.  369  n. 

Zealots,  ii.  207,  221  f.,  225,  226. 

Zenobia,  government  of,  ii.  115  f.; 
claim  to  joint-rule,  116  n.\  occu- 
pation of  Egypt,  116,  271  f.; 
Aurelian  against,  117 ;  battle  of 
Hemesa,  119  f. ;  capture,  120, 

Zenodorus,  of  Abila,  ii.  161, 

Zimises,  ii.  350  n. 

Zoelae,  i.  78  w, 

Zoskales,  ii.  307. 

Zula,  ii.  304. 


AEGYPTEN. 


Jfoderni  JTamen  in,   riufW\i«.^tTviLev  ScVorxft. 
IfomuuB  m  Xam.  G-eBcTti.TT.    


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